Bladed Wings
by Abigator15
Summary: Throughout Erin's entire life she always assumed that there was no such thing as other dimensions or anything close to traveling to them. Especially to an anime. An OC-insert
1. Chapter 1

A/N: this is my first fanfic and I'm hoping that it will turn out nicely. Happy reading you guys!

Chapter one:

"Juuileut dollida!"

Three students stood attention, watching silently, yet eagerly, for further instruction.

"Joh-eun hwal."

I silently go into a deep bow along with my peers. I look back up to see Master Daren leaving his chair.

"Please take a seat and remove and fold your belts." He said as he walked towards his office

We did so and carefully folded our belts.

I silently sat still as I waited while my peers whispered excitedly to each other. I rolled my eyes at them and looked toward my older sibling.

Conner gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up and mouthed "good job!"

I cast him a nervous smile and looked down at my blue belt. I've been in Tae Kwon Do for five years now and throughout that time, both of us have been taken away from our parents by child protective services, put into foster care, moved to a new school, and what I oddly find is most important: Conner has become a second degree black belt.

I want to catch up with him. I look around, Master Daren is taking a while, did we do anything wrong? What do I do if he doesn't give me my brown belt? I take a deep breath, calm down Erin, your belt is literally right in front of you. Master Daren wouldn't do that.

I'm pulled out of my thoughts as Master Daren walked back into the room holding three brown belts.

I let out a sigh of relief. See, your fine.

"Paul,"

"Yes sir!"

Master Daren quickly tied the belt around the young boys waste. "Congratulations, brown belt!"

Paul gave him an arm bump and shook his hand. "Gamsahabnida, thank you sir."

Paul jogged back to his spot. While Master Daren gave Alex his belt I shifted in excitement.

"Erin."

"Yes sir!"

I walked towards Master Daren, carefully keeping my composure.

Master Daren skillfully tied the belt around my waste, "Congratulations, brown belt."

I gave him an arm bump and shook his hand. "Gamsahabnida, thank you sir."

The room clapped while the three of us stood at attention. "You will learn a new kick and two takedowns. A lot to be excited about for this next belt!"

We all bowed to Master Daren before taking our leave.

"You did a fantastic job Erin!" Exclaimed Conner as he unlocked the door to our house.

"Thanks. But my spinning hook kick was a little sloppy."

"What!? Your spinning hook was perfect. When I was a blue belt I didn't do as well as you." He assured me.

Really? I felt a tinge of excitement, I'm ahead of him?

A grin appears on my face and Conner looks down and returns it. "Why don't we order Vietnamese food tonight to celebrate? Paula is working late."

"Sure!"

Once the Vietnamese came, Conner and I settled down on the couch to watch Naruto. Conner has watched the entire series and decided to introduce it to me.

Currently, Rock Lee is drunkenly fighting the Kimimaru guy.

"Lee's gonna destroy him." I stated flatly, pointing towards the screen.

Conner chuckled, "how are you so sure?"

"Because, Lee is ridiculously OP and it's obvious that that guy's overconfident."

"Oh really?"

"Yep."

…

We're interrupted at a loud knock on the door.

"Stay here, I'll get it." Conner said as he paused the TV followed by an "aww" from me.

I waited impatiently for Conner's return until I heard shouting.

"What? An old man can't come to visit his two kids!?l" Crap, that's our father.

"Tyler, you're drunk. Leave." Came my brothers firm voice as I silently crept towards the door and peaked out.

My breath catches in my throat as I see Tyler shove my older brother. "I'm not drunk you little brat and I can see you whenever I wan't."

"It's illegal for you to see us-" Tyler abruptly punched my brother in the head.

Anger flares in my chest as I bolt from my hiding place and used the momentum to kick the man's stomach. "Leave him alone!"

I watched as Tyler picked himself off of the ground "so that's how it is, bitch." He growled "it's obvious that you need to learn your place."

With that, the middle aged man tackled me to the ground and pressed his hands against my throat.

I kick and struggle to breath as he pressed even harder. I can faintly hear Conner shouting in the background while the edges of my vision went black. I struggled even harder but there was nothing I could do as I lost consciousness.

I woke up to see white and let out a pained groan as I went to clutch my throat only to find a cast in the way.

"Erin!" I look up to see my brother sitting up in a chair.

"Co-" I choke as pain shoots through my neck.

"No! Don't try to speak. Tyler choked you until you passed out and I called an ambulance."

Right, that whole thing with Tyler showing up sloppy drunk, I thought, Conner must have managed to pull him off of me.

I feel myself slowly beginning process what happened and within a few seconds a sob racked through my body.

"Oh Erin." I look up to see tears streaming from Conner's eyes as well. He moved to give me a hug as we both cried.

Eventually I fell asleep and I woke up to see that Conner was gone. No wait, he was with Paula as she was bursting into the room.

"I came as soon as possible when I heard what happened!" She cried as she wrapped her arms around me and furiously looked me over. "Are you ok sweetie? How are you? Can you talk?"

I let out a sigh. Paula's a good foster parent and all but she acts like we're children. I'm fourteen and Conner's seventeen.

Shut up, you almost got strangled to death she should be worried. Oh right.

"I-I'm ok." I rasped, my throat feeling absolutely terrible as I spoke.

"No you're not! Did you just hear yourself speak!?" She gasped.

An awkward cough interrupted our one-sided conversation by a nurse who had been waiting patiently by the door up until now. "I'm sorry but Erin needs her rest and…"

"I understand." Said Paula as she moved to usher Conner out of the room.

"Get better ASAP!" Said Conner giving me a weak thumbs up as he stepped through the doorway.

I gave him a weak smile as the door snapped shut. I'm all alone now.

Now what do I do? I get out of my bed even though I'm probably not supposed to and look out the window. How long is it going to be before I can get back to Tae Kwon Do? I sigh, placing my elbows on the window sill and looking down at the traffic, probably at least two months, since it was just-

I'm dragged out of my thoughts as I hear a low hissing sound.

Hmm? I turn to my right and see a strange necklace hanging off of the window sill.

I silently stare at it as it hisses. It has a thin and delicate chain that leads down to a large black rock that's shaped like a reptile's scale. I can also see what appears to be smoke or steam coming off of it.

I slowly reach for the piece of jewellery as it continues to hiss. As I pick the necklace up it's hisses become louder.

Well that's pleasant. I think as I look at it closely. I suddenly hear the hospital door open, then close. Followed by someone yelling at me to get into bed. Oh crap.

I can't help myself as I slipped the necklace over my head and around my neck and the world immediately goes black.

A/N: just warning you Erin will eventually become super OP. Every 100 views I will have a chapter with another character's POV. It will basically be a recap of their relationship with Erin from them meeting to where the story is now.

I'm hoping to post at least one chapter per week. See you guys later!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

I slowly open my eyes just to promptly close them again at the harsh light of the hospital.

When did I fall asleep? I thought with my eyes closed, what time is it?

I crack my eyes open and look around. There's a nurse quietly talking to a doctor who is frowning at what looks like a clip board. I try to listen closely but I can't make out the words that they are saying.

Something warm thumps on my chest and I look down to recognize the necklace from before.

I look to my right, expecting to see Conner sitting in the chair, only to find that there is no chair. "Excuse me," I ask, making the two people jump,"where's my brother?"

"She's awake!" The nurse cries, but I can't understand anything that she's saying.

"Inform Hokage-sama, I'll stay here." The women left the room in a rush while the man walked towards me. "What's your name and age?"

I stare at him, "what was that?" That's when I realize that my throat doesn't sting. "How long was I out!?" I ask in panic trying to sit up only to find that my wrists are bound to the bed. "Why am I tied up!? What did I do!? Where am I!?"

The man vainly attempted to calm me down while I struggled against the restraints and yelled. But after about five minutes I gave up and fell silent while the doctor tried to communicate with me.

"Where are you from?" I just shook my head and gave him a helpless expression. "Did somebody hurt your neck?"

"I can't understand you. English, do you know any English?" The man sighed and leaned against the wall.

We sat in silence. Where am I? Where is Conner? Why am I tied up? Why can't I understand what this guy's saying? I can feel a panic attack coming. Don't you dare! Not in front of him! Calm down Erin. I force myself and take deep breaths.

I snap out of my thoughts when I hear the door open and close and I watch as an old man along with the nurse and two other men walk into the room.

"Hokage-sama." The doctor greets bowing.

"Haru-san, this is the girl?"

"Yes, it appears as if she can't understand me. I've tried to speak with her but she just answers with gibberish."

I ignore their conversation and stare at the old man, he's wearing a red and white robe along with a hat that's probably way larger than it needs to be. When I look at him I immediately imagine the third hokage from Naruto. But that's impossible. I then turn my attention to the two men. One has long blond hair and and… Pupil-less blue eyes. Is he blind? I look to the other man who has dark hair which is in a high ponytail which makes it look an awful lot like a pineapple.

He looks at me skeptically and I immediately drop my gaze.

That's when I realize that the old man was trying to talk to me. "-re you from another hidden village? Kirigakure? Sunagakure?" I look at him blankly. The old man sighed, "well I suppose that if you can't speak with us, keeping you would be useless and we may as well just kill you."

It looked like everyone was expecting me to say something. "I can't understand you, why are you still trying to talk to me?" I mumble in frustration.

The old man let out another sigh. He does that a lot. "We could see if Inoichi-san can make a connection but judging by how she appears to be missing chakra…"

"Her chakra coils absorbed healing chakra just fine so it most likely won't hurt to try." The doctor spoke. I almost forgot that he and the nurse were still there.

Everyone turned to the blond man who shrugged, "it's worth a try." The man walks towards me and I immediately stiffen.

"What are you doing?"

The stops directly beside my bed and smiles at me. "Yamanaka Inoichi." He says gesturing to himself.

Yamanaka!? The Inoichi Yamanaka!? From the original Ino-Shika-Cho team!? That must mean that the other man is Shikaku Nara.

I realize that Inoichi just introduced himself and I should probably do the same thing. He said his last name first right? "Lattè Erin." Yes, my last name is Lattè, deal with it.

Inoichi's smile grew wider, "Erin-san, you probably don't understand me, but I'm going to attempt to enter you mindscape to talk to you."

"...huh?" I didn't get a chance to react when a hand was firmly placed on my head and I was plunged into darkness.

I slowly crack my eyes open to see Inoichi and I standing in darkness. It feels as if the inside of my head burns. I groan in pain and clutch my head.

"Erin."

I look up at Inoichi and speak past the pain. "Where are we?"

"I believe that we are in a halfway point between your mindscape and consciousness."

"Oh. I can understand you."

"The mind has no language. Now, where are you from?"

I pause, what should I say? "Somewhere very far away, it's called Canada." Oh my god this hurts.

Inoichi frowns at my answer, but just shakes his head and asks, "how old are you?"

"Fourteen." I grit my teeth.

"Do you have any shinobi training?"

"What? No."

"Do you have any combat training?"

"Well I'm a mar-"

We are abruptly ripped into reality when my head throbs and I furiously release whatever it was that was making it so painful.

"Inoichi-san, what happened?"

"She kicked me out." Everyone in the room turns to stare at me.

"...Forcefully?"

"In a way, I suppose but I think that she didn't know what she was doing."

"How so?"

"I could tell that she was in pain throughout the entire conversation that we had. It didn't seem like she was intending to end our conversation when she did."

I focus on the sheets of the bed, a slight throb still going through my head. It must have been chakra that was making it hurt so much. I pause looking up at Inoichi, one things for sure, I'm not interested in that happening again. Even if it means that I can't communicate.

"If it was causing her pain then it most likely means that she is hypersensitive to chakra." The doctor added into the conversation that I cannot understand but I can tell that it's about me.

As their talking about, well, most likely what to do with me I completely zone out thinking about everything that's happened so far. Eventually the nurse wordlessly unclips my wrists from the bed and it appears as if the others are ready to take their leave.

"Goodbye Erin-chan!" The old man says cheerily as he steps out of the hospital door.

I'm guessing what he just said means goodbye. Man, learning their language is going to suck.

A/N: I'm posting really quickly (I guess mostly because it's summer) when I'm back in school, I'm probably gonna post way less.


	3. Chapter 3

Now Erin is starting to understand Japanese so we can get this story rolling.

Chapter 3:

"Erin, ahh" I roll my eyes as my nurse, who I recently found out who's name was Minami, gestured to her mouth.

"You can just say it." I open my mouth for her to inspect my throat. "Then I learn."

I've been in this hospital for three months now. And I have been badgering Minami into teaching me as much as possible. I'm surprised at how fast I've been learning this language, I mean it's not like I could get an award or anything but if somebody's talking to me, I can get the gist of what they're saying.

Minami sighed tiredly "alright the words for it are 'open your mouth'."

"Open your mo-outh." I repeat, "open your mouth."

Minami laughed "you're a very fast learner Erin-san, I'd even say that you're a bit of a prodigy."

"Prodigy?"

"Somebody who's very good at learning and very smart."

"Oh." So she means that prodigy. "Writing?" I ask her. Lifting up my sketchbook which is both filled with drawings and kanji.

"Alright, but I can only stay for about ten minutes today." She took the book out of my hands, "the hospital is very busy."

"Hn," I watch as Minami explains several kanji to me and shows me how to write them. But after exactly ten minutes Minami gets up to leave.

"Oh! I almost forgot that I have a present for you!" I look up at her in surprise, "Here, it's a book."

She tosses me a fairly thin book, well, for some other people they'd say that it's about average but for me it's thin.

I read the cover out loud "Tails of a, erm."

"Tails of a Gutsy Ninja, Erin-san! It was even written by one of the great Sannin Jiraiya!"

"Hn," I curiously flipped through the pages only catching a few words that I understood. "Might need help."

"I'll help you whenever I have the time, or," she paused for dramatic effect, "you could try asking one of the patients in the lounge for help!" I immediately frowned in distaste. I never liked introducing myself or even meeting new people in general. Normally I'd just cling to my brother but here I seem to be lacking in older siblings so Minami has taken that place. "Or you could sit in here by yourself and be all alone as usual."

I'm pretty sure that I'm never actually alone. I can constantly feel a presence just outside of my door at all times. It's not always the same presence but it's still there.

I yawn and lean back in my bed just to spite her as she turns to leave, "have fun all on your lonesome Erin-san."

I wave as she closes the door behind her.

When her presence faded, I got out of bed and moved to the bathroom to get changed, Minami gave me some of her old clothes so I didn't have to wear a hospital gown.

As I look at my reflection in the mirror I note the differences between me and everyone I've met so far. I have rusty red hair that goes down and stops at my shoulders, basically all of the women, no, just basically everyone has really long hair that's usually in a ponytail. My icy blue eyes with black rims are very different from the majority's plain brown or blue. My face is differently shaped from everyone else's, my jaw is more noticeable as are my cheeks. I have a completely different body type from all and I mean all of the women that I have seen (which would be the nurses that I have seen) who are all tall and skinny. While I, am short and curvy. But the biggest thing that I've noticed is that I. Am. The. Only. Person. With. Freckles. This makes me feel extremely self conscious and awkward

when both nurses and doctors alike STAIR at my FACE. That Haru guy has even examined my face to make sure I didn't have skin cancer or something!

I walk out of the bathroom and sit back down on my bed. Looking at the book now I have no idea how I'm going to read this. 'Maybe I should get help.' I flip open the first page 'nah.' I should be fine. I've figured out basically all I know of this language by using educated guesses. Reading can't be much different.

That's how I spend my entire day slowly teaching myself new words with this book. 'I wonder how and why Jiraiya ended up writing romance novels.' I thought to myself, 'maybe it's because he realized that he would always be single'

"Pft," I cover my mouth to stifle my laughter.

"What's so funny?" I jump when I look up to see Minami.

"No thing, just a thought."

"Don't tell me you've been reading that book for twelve hours straight." Minami said pinching the bridge of her nose. I shrug as if I'm completely helpless to the situation. "Oh you've got to be kidding me. That's it! Tomorrow you're going outside to get some sunlight!"

I gape at her "wh-what!?"

"That's right young lady! Tomorrow's my day off so I'll go with you!" She moved forward and prodded my chest "and guess what?" She asked evilly to my horrified face. "We're going shopping and I'm going to get ninja guards that are your age to come with us! You'll HAVE to talk to them!"

Oh my god she's finally lost it. "Now get some sleep my little duckling! You have a big day tomorrow!" Minami then shut the lights and took her leave. Leaving me alone and shivering in the dark.

A/N: Minami has basically become Erin's mother hen.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

I silently stare at the door. Waiting for Minami and whoever is supposed to guard us when we go out.

I've already gotten ready to go. I'm currently wearing an older dark blue T-shirt of Minami's and some black leggings. Both are just slightly too large on me and I've tied the shirt with a ponytail so it doesn't go down to my mid-thighs.

I freeze, I can make out five presences making their way down the hall towards my room. One of them I recognize as Minami. Other than her I can sense an adult and three younger people. One of them feels kind of strange as if something is being suppressed.

Oh god they're right outside, why is Minami doing this to me?

The door bursts open as the one with the strange presence moves ahead of the others. "Where is this youthful maiden of which we are meant to protect!?" Oh god. I shrink backwards into my bed. "I, Rock Lee will not take our twentieth mission lightly!"

This is how I die. Rock Lee spotted me and pointed an over exaggerated finger. "There you are t-"

"Stop it Lee! You're probably scaring her!" A girl with brown hair which is in two buns walked in along with a boy with long and I mean long, brown hair and clear eyes.

Lee turned and looked sheepishly back at Tenten, "oh right, I apologize for my loud behaviour."

Minami walked in along with a man who I'm assuming is Might Gai judging from his outfit. "So everyone this is Erin-san!" She introduced clapping her hands, "Erin, these are the nice ninjas who are going to escort us around the village!"

I simply look at everyone not knowing what to say. Until now I have convinced myself that I'm not actually in the Narutoverse, that I was still somewhere on earth. Seeing these people proves that I'm wrong.

"Aww, look she's shy!" Says Tenten completely getting the wrong idea. "Don't worry Erin-san you're safe with us! Anyway my names Tenten! This is Lee, this is Neji, and this is Gai-Sensei!" She gestured to each person as she introduced them.

Gai got onto one of his knees. "Whenever you're ready Erin-chan!"

I don't know how to react. So I just move towards the door, "please do not add 'chan' to my name."

As we made our way out of the hospital it feels as if I'm not mentally there. It's like I just realized that all of this is real. I'm actually far away from my home and old life. I'm surrounded by people from a completely different culture. I will probably never see my friends or family again. I'm all alone.

I take a deep breath. I can make it through this. I look over at Minami, she hasn't noticed. Good. I glance at Gai, oh man he's watching. I drop my gaze and and continue walking. Whispering behind me tells me that the genin are talking about me.

Calm down. It's alright. You're fine.

I'm broken out of my thoughts when we go through the front doors and I let out a gasp.

There are colourful buildings everywhere. Shading from dark orange to bright blue. There are people EVERYWHERE, I can see children throwing paper shurikens at each other. And there are people jumping from roof to roof to get to their destinations!

'We aren't in Kansas anymore.'

A hand clapped on my shoulder making me jump. I look up to see Gai grinning down at me, "Konoha is a beautiful place isn't it Erin-san?" I slowly nod my head, dumbfounded. "Let us go and explore it then!"

"Come on!" Shouts Minami grabbing my hand, "to the clothing store!"

"Gah!" I let out a cry as Minami runs, dragging me with her.

Much to Minami's distress and Tenten's approval I ignored the dresses and kimono's in the store and ended up getting basically the black version of shinobi's pants. With pockets! I also have a grey tank top and a light purple hoodie that I currently have tied around my waste. Lee forced me to get ninja sandals but I only agreed when he brought me a black pair.

Currently, we are walking towards a training ground to watch while the ninjas train. Minami hadn't been very keen on the idea but I was the one who suggested it. The ninjas had seemed pretty shocked at first but now Tenten, Lee, and Gai are enthusiastically telling me about their training exercises. While I'm pretty sure that Neji is just suspicious of me.

"Why do you want to watch us train Erin-san?" Asked Lee, and I saw Neji stiffen, "do you want to become a ninja as well?"

Both Minami and I stiffened. I never even thought of that I've never even considered my choices in this world.

"Erm," I can sense Minami's and Neji's stares on the back of my head. "I don't know."

"You don't know!?" Cried Rock Lee in disbelief, "don't you have a dream Erin-san!?"

"Err, no." For as long I can remember, I've been told that I'll probably work at somewhere like Walmart or Starbucks by every family member that I have. Other than Conner.

"WHAT!?" Lee practically fell over, then gazed at me determinedly. "That is it! I, Rock Lee will help you to realize your dream!"

Oh man, what have I gotten myself into?

A/N: I found this chapter oddly difficult to write even though it wasn't that long. For the next chapter, I'm planning on having some action! So that's something to be excited about!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Hey guys remember what I said about having some action in this next chapter? HA! Jokes on you we've reached 100 views! So it's time for another character's POV!

Chapter 5:

Neji's POV

Never before had Neji been met with such a skeptical. Apparently his team was supposed to guard a mysterious girl who had just showed up passed out in the middle of training ground 44.

The Hokage warned them that she didn't speak Japanese very well and told them to watch for any signs that she may be a threat.

The team walked up to the hospital to meet a slightly nervous looking nurse. "Hi,

I'm Minami! Are you the ninjas who are supposed to guard Erin and I?" She asked, waving them over.

"Indeed we are." Said Gai-Sensei shaking Minami's hand.

"Well alright then!" Minami began leading them through the hospital. "Erin-san's been in this hospital for three months now and I thought that she could get some sunshine!"

"Why has she been in the hospital for so long? Has she been sick?" Asked Neji, earning a nod of approval from Gai-Sensei.

"Well… For the first few weeks she was recovering but after that…" Minami paused, "I guess she was just satisfied with staying in her room."

Gai-Sensei looked surprised, "what was the youthful maiden recovering from?"

Minami looked hesitant to answer. "... When she was found her neck was in a cast." She stated, "under the cast she was very badly bruised with signs of suffocation."

The group drew in a sharp breath. Somebody tried to kill their client.

"I've tried talking to her about it but… She always changes the subject."

There were so many red flags in this case that Neji didn't know where to begin. Why did she appear in the middle of training ground 44? Why would somebody try to kill her? Why didn't whoever put the cast on just use medical ninjutsu?

Neji's broken out of his thoughts by Tenten. "So… Other than that what's she like?" She asked.

"Oh, she is a very smart girl. She has learned so much Japanese in just three months!" Answered Minami, clearly happy about the change in subject. "She always asks me to teach her." Then Minami frowned. "But she usually avoids talking to people other than me so that's why I asked for a genin team."

Neji stopped paying attention to Minami as she gushed about this 'Erin'. Paid attention to each of the chakra signatures in each person's room as they passed by and was surprised when Minami stopped at the one room that seemed to be empty.

"This is her room. She can be skittish with new people so-"

"Here we go!" Cried Lee as he rushed in.

Neji paused, he was sure that there wasn't anyone in there. He stopped for a second and whispered, "byakugan!"

There indeed was someone in there. But, they didn't have any chakra in their system. Neji narrowed his eyes as he saw the unique chakra network. It looked like it followed along the outside of the blood vessels as they made their way around the body. That's when he noticed a dark glow on the girl's chest. It was shaped like a teardrop or a reptilian scale.

Neji deactivated his byakugan and walked in along with Tenten.

"There you are th-"

"Stop it Lee you're probably scaring her!" Snapped Tenten, as they walked in.

Neji only paid half attention to the conversation between everyone as he watched her. She definitely looks foreign. The red hair immediately made him think of sunagakure but then he saw the freckles on her cheeks.

'Where is she from?'

"Aww, look she's shy!" Said Tenten, noticing that Erin hasn't said a word throughout this meeting."Don't worry Erin-san you're safe with us! Anyway my names Tenten! This is Lee, this is Neji, and this is Gai-Sensei!" She gestured to each person as she introduced them.

Gai got onto one of his knees. Making Neji roll his eyes. "Whenever you're ready

Erin gave him a blank look and moved towards the door. "please do not add 'chan' to my name." She said in an accented voice.

"She doesn't have any chakra." Whispered Neji as their team dropped back as they walked through the hospital, "That's why we couldn't sense her even when we reached her door."

"That is so weird!" Whisper-yelled Lee, "don't people need chakra to live!?"

"Well apparently she doesn't. Did you see anything else Neji?" Asked Tenten.

"Her chakra network is very advanced. It follows along the outside of her bloodstream." He paused, "if she had chakra in her system, she would have a ridiculous amount of chakra control but the sensation might be too much for both her mind and body to process."

"Wow…" Whispered Tenten glancing forward at the girl.

"And… There's one more thing."

His partners eyes widened when Neji tried to describe the dark glow that he'd seen.

"It might be a seal." Said Tenten.

"If it is a seal, there is almost no doubt that it has something strong in it!" Added Lee.

"We'll just have to keep a close eye on her for now." Said Neji as they reached the front doors of the hospital.

Erin's reaction to seeing Konoha said that she was from somewhere completely different.

Now the group was walking throughout the village showing Erin the sights. After getting her new clothes.

"What do you want to do Erin-San?" Asked Minami as she walked along side her.

Erin paused clearly thinking. "... Do ninjas have training?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah we do!" Cried Lee, jumping forward to walk beside her.

"... Can I watch…?"

Minami gaped at her, "don't you have any other ideas sweety?" She asked.

"Nope." Erin looked like she partially made her decision due to Minami's unpleasant reaction.

"Yes! Those who are youthful are always welcome to watch!" Cried Gai-Sensei as he immediately turned to lead the group to the nearest training ground.

Neji glared at her suspiciously as they continued to walk. Was she trying to learn about the ninjas of konohagakure?

There were so many red flags in this case… Who is this Erin and where did she come from?

A/N: Geez… I wasn't expecting to hit 100

Views this quickly. You guys are awesome! Neji is hard to write about since he's all suspicious and doesn't talk that much.

I will probably have some action in the next chapter. But if not it will definitely be in the one after!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: hey guys just wanted to let you know that when I posted the last chapter I was already at 200 views. So we're bumping special chapters to every 500 views! Yay!

Chapter 6

Apparently helping me realize my dream meant showing up at the hospital once or

twice a week to drag me outside make me do random crap.

Seriously this is the third week of this. And I'm annoyed at how much Minami seems to be happy about it. Ok, I'm admitting that that other people's suffering brings joy to me. So Minami being so cheerful and constantly asking about Lee bothers me.

But it's weird. I also like to make people laugh too. I'm just a big weirdo.

Anyway, right now Lee and I are walking through the streets of Konoha looking for things to do.

"What do you wish to do today Erin-San?" Asked Lee. "You tried teaching last week but you made a child cry."

I smirk at the memory and shrug, "he said something sexist."

Lee frowned at me, "you could have used kinder words to guide the youth…" He paused, "instead of stating that any princess could beat him in a fight."

"Was I wrong?" I asked with a frown.

Lee fell over.

"Indeed you aren't wrong but-"

Lee's interrupted by a loud shout. "Get out of here you fox!" Shouted an angry voice followed by a loud 'oof' as the middle aged man kicked a small boy out of their booth.

"What did I do!?" Cried the blond wearing an orange jumpsuit.

"You aren't welcome here brat!" Snapped the man.

People were gathering in a circle to watch. But not moving to help.

Anger floods through me and I force my way through the crowd and reached the boy.

"What is wrong with you!?" I snap, angrily stepping between the boy and the man. "Why would you hit a child!?"

"You'll understand when you're older kid!" Growled the man. Then he pointed at the boy, "you should stay away from that demon!"

"It seems more like I should stay away from you!" I snap. Pointing back at him. I then turn to the boy and ask, "are you ok?"

The boy looks shocked and slowly nods his head. Suddenly his eyes widen. "Watch out!"

I whip around to see the man throwing a punch in my direction and move on muscle memory.

I slam my hand down on his wrist, directing the blow to the right and slide forward extending my free arm which hits his neck. The man falls to the ground and looks up at me with shocked eyes and the circle of civilians gasps in shock.

"What kind of person hits children?" I growl as I help the boy up and feel slightly embarrassed when I realize he's taller than me and turn to walk away.

The group parts to let us through. The boy looked awkward as I led the way away from the crowd. We meet Lee who had been watching from the sidelines.

"Erin-San! You know TAIJUTSU!?" He cried in shock.

"Yes." I answered flatly. I then turn back to the boy. "Are you really ok?"

The boy nodded his head, dumbfounded. "...w-why did you help me?" He asked, blue eyes wide.

"I don't like bullies." I said simply. I look him up and down. "What's your name?"

The kid grinned adjusting the goggles on his forehead. "I'm Usumaki Naruto and I'm gonna be hokage one day!"

So that's why he seemed so familiar. "So you are in the ninja academy?" I asked.

"Yeah! Only five months until I'm gonna graduate and become a genin!" He cried excitedly.

So that's where I am in the story now. The main arc hasn't begun yet.

But then I realize something he must be twelve right now. And he's taller than me. Naruto is supposed to be short for his age. I'm fourteen.

I almost want to cry out in frustration as I realize this.

"So… Are you a ninja Erin-chan?"

Irritation floods through me at the 'chan' he added to my name. "No. And please don't add 'chan' to my name."

"Erin-San could definitely become a ninja if she wanted to!" Cried Lee excitedly as he grabbed my arm, "we must go to the nearest training ground as soon as possible!"

With that Lee dragged me away leaving a confused Naruto to make his own assumptions.

"Alright! I want you to come at me with everything you have!"

I stare at Lee. He wants me to attack him!?

"What are you waiting for!?" He asks, confused.

"I've been taught only to use Tae Kwon Do to protect myself or others."

Lee looked at me as if this is the most important thing on the planet. "This is how you learn to protect!"

I can feel discomfort running through me while I stood there. Here's the difference in cultures, in this world fighting and killing is honourable and something to be proud of. In my world or at least where I live, we're taught at a young age that words hurt more than actions and even arguing is frowned upon.

"If you cannot come at me! Then I will come at you!"

I gasp in surprise as Lee suddenly comes at me with a punch and instead of blocking I jump back.

"Is there something wrong Erin-San?"

"No!" I cry then add sheepishly, "i-it's just that we train differently…"

"How Erin-San?"

"We umm… used targets."

"I'll be the target for this training Erin-San."

"Could we just do push-ups?"

"Not yet! I need to know your level in taijutsu if I am going to train you!" He paused, "imagine that I'm the man that attacked you earlier."

I let out a sigh and sink into sparring stance. Showing that I'm ready.

Lee comes at me again and I directed his blow to the side and moved to punch his ribs but at the last second I slowed the momentum so it was just a light tap.

Before I could comprehend what was happening I'm on the ground. Winded.

Lee let out a long sigh. "Wait here. I will get the targets."

"Thank you." I managed to sputter from the ground as he walked away.

Once he's gone I slowly get up and lean against a tree.

'If I'm going to be training like this from now on I-'

I choke as suddenly an arm wraps around my throat in a headlock and a piece of sweet smelling fabric is pressed to my nose as I'm dragged away.

I furiously kick and struggle and let out muffled screams as I vainly try to break free.

But after about ten seconds, the world is black.

A/N: Cliff hanger! Haha! This chapter wasn't quite the action that I was talking about. That will come in the next chapter! See ya!


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: and we're back! Finally get to see some action! That's exciting! I love writing action!

I'm gonna answer a question:

To: Thousand Drop (

I haven't finished watching all of Naruto Shippuden yet and I haven't seen anything after the fourth shinobi war so I've only seen snippets of how strong Naruto is. Let's just say, that if Naruto and Erin were to have a fight after the war, Naruto would win. Big time. She'll probably be about as strong as one of the upper level Akatsuki. Like Kakuzu or Zetsu. I'll also do my best to make the chapters longer.

I love hearing people's feedback! Keep

up the reviews!

Chapter 7:

I'm woken by a sharp jostle and let out a groan as I raise my head. It's very dark and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust.

After a few seconds, I recognize that I'm in a caravan and I can hear rumblings of voices outside. I look around the inside then I suddenly notice there's a boy.

"Hey! You're awake!" He whispers, grinning at me with sharp teeth. "I was wondering if you were dead."

"Dead? Where are we?" I ask.

The guy rolls his eyes, "we were both captured by some guys who work for a man named Orochimaru."

"Orochimaru?" I gasp feeling my face pale.

"Yeah, you must know about the guy. So I'm not gonna have to explain." He paused, "anyway, I think what's gonna happen is that we're gonna go to Suna and then back to Oto."

"How do you know?" I asked quietly, he seems to know exactly what's going on here.

"I just so happen to be very good at listening to things. Anyway, I'm Hōzuki Suigetsu and I'm from Kiri. Who are you?" He asked, "I know you're from Konoha."

So he's from Kirigakure. "Lattè Erin." I answer.

"That's a weird name Erin-chan."

"Don't add 'chan' to my name."

Suigetsu looked confused, "uhh… Erin-hime?"

"No, just Erin or Erin-San." I correct. I don't like the feminine honorifics very much because people often use it to tell you that you're cute or need protecting. "So why is Orochimaru after us?" I ask.

"Well… The members of my clan are capable of turning into water." He shrugged. "I don't know why they took you. I guess there must be something special about you that they liked."

"Hmm." I think for a moment. "So how are we getting out?"

Suigetsu looks surprised, then a grin appears on his face which promptly disappears and he looks down at his feet depressedly, " we can't do anything. They have us both in chakra cuffs."

"You're tied up?" I asked.

"Yeah. So are you. I saw them put the cuffs on you."

I remember something that the doctors have been fussing over the entire time I've been in this world.

I hold up my hands, easily slipping out of the cuffs. "Don't you need chakra for them to work?" I asked with a grin.

"What!? You can get out!" He cried, "let me out!" He exclaimed squirming in his spot.

I furiously shushed him as I got up and quietly made my way towards him.

I found that his hands were bound in handcuffs chaining him to the floor and let out an irritated hiss when I see that I need a key.

"What's wrong?" He asked, quieter now.

"I need a key." I stated flatly sitting back in my spot.

"You're staying here? You could escape right now!" He asked.

"I'm not leaving you behind." I said quietly.

"Why? We're from different villages!" He cried, "it would be smarter for you to leave me behind."

"I'm not a ninja." I stated, "and nobody deserves to be kidnapped. Get it?"

Suigetsu looked dumbfounded and eventually nodded his head. "A guy who should have keys is going to come in soon to give us water." He frowned, thinking, "but you aren't a ninja…"

"I'm not a civilian either. I can at least try."

Suigetsu looked confused but didn't ask as we waited.

After about fifteen minutes a man climbed in with a water bladder and I pretended to be asleep.

"The girl's still asleep eh?"

Only silence came from Suigetsu and I allow my eyes to open a crack. The man was crouching in front of him and moving the water bladder forward so he could have a drink.

I made my move.

I kicked the man's legs out from under him and jumped on top. I grabbed the keys from his belt and slammed my fist into his face. I then grabbed the man's hands and forced them into my chakra cuffs. All the while Suigetsu is enthusiastically cheering me on. While the man was trapped and cursing loudly I jump towards Suigetsu. Ready to unlock him.

But that's when five others jumped onto the caravan and a blow to the head knocked me out.

"Well you did a lot better than I thought you would." Said Suigetsu reassuringly while I leaned backwards, trying to sooth my headache.

"You're not helping." I furiously try to think of something to get us out of here. This heat isn't helping. I'm assuming that right now we're in the desert.

After our last escape attempt Orochimaru's henchmen tied my hands up with rope while I was knocked out so now we have a lot less leverage. And they are a lot more suspicious.

"Hey I'm just trying to keep up the mood and I you've got more ideas than me on how to escape." he then collapses backwards dramatically and sticks out his tongue. "Oh Kami, it's SO hot!"

I feel bad for him. Isn't he supposed to basically be made out of water? I wish there was something I could do…

Wait, maybe there is! "HEY LOSERS MY FRIEND'S DYING OF THIRST!" I yell dramatically.

Suigetsu immediately sits up. "What the hell are you doing!?" He whispers furiously.

"If we can't escape, why don't we get loud and hope someone hears? Also, if I can't get away, I'm planning on making this process as long and annoying as possible." I answered.

Somebody rushed in with a water bladder and gave Suigetsu a drink. They then turned to me. "You haven't eaten or drank anything throughout this entire trip. Do you need water?"

I nod my head and the person moves forward to give me a drink. But as soon as they get close enough I lurch forward and bite their hand, drawing blood. The person yells in surprise and pain and I kick their legs out from under them from where I'm sitting.

I smirk in triumph, but as soon as the person is up they hit me hard in the head and the world goes black.

"Have you got a death wish!?" Snapped Suigetsu the second I wake up.

"I'd rather die than become a test subject to Orochimaru." I answer honestly.

I saw Suigetsu biting his lip before answering, "I can't believe you! You're not even a ninja and you're putting your life on the line."

I shrug and look around, this time when I woke up my legs were tied tightly so that I couldn't hit people whenever they walked in.

"Do you know when we'll get to Suna?" I asked, when we get there it might be our last chance at escape.

"Hn. We should be there by midnight tonight." He gave me a questioning look, "do you have a plan?"

"Shout really loudly." Suigetsu gave me a deadpan look, and I let out a sigh, "do you know how long we'll be there?"

"Well, we were in Konoha for about four days so I'm guessing that time to a week."

"Hn." I answer quietly, still thinking. There is no way they could keep us in this cart out in the open for a week so that must mean they're going to move us into a building or a house. That might be our chance. But how would they get us into the village in the first place? Wouldn't the guards want to search the caravan before they got in?

Unless they have allies within the village. I let out a sigh and lean back. "So you can turn into water Suigetsu?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I can't do it with these chakra cuffs on." He said with an annoyed huff. "So unless we can think of a way to get them off it isn't going to work."

I look around, thinking hard. "Can you show me you chakra cuffs?" I ask.

Suigetsu looks confused but awkwardly turns around so that I can see. They're rusty. I smirk, my plan might work.

"I have an idea but we'll have to wait until we're in the village."

I'm exhausted. I think that my lack of food and water is starting to take its toll in my body. Suigetsu eyes me with concern as I struggle to stay awake.

"Are you sure that you can go through with the plan? You look terrible." He asks quietly.

"Yes I'm sure." I answered stubbornly. "It's like I said before. I'd rather die than become a test subject." I stated flatly.

Suigetsu simply frowns at me and sighs, "whatever. It's your body, not mine."

We sat in silence while we waited to arrive at the village. I entertained myself by counting the number of chakra signatures that I could sense. It seemed like there was elev-no, ten people and one horse. I can recognize the man who always comes to give us food and water. I can also distinguish the driver.

I move onto trying to guess how strong somebody is or if they're male or female. So far, I've got seven men and three women. Four people have good chakra control and I think that two people have curse seals. That's all I've got for now.

I sharply draw in a breath as somebody suddenly starts shouting orders. And I turn and make eye-contact with Suigetsu.

We're here and we need to start our plan.

A/N: So Erin meets Suigetsu and they make a plan to escape! What do you think that plan is? You'll find out in the next chapter!

Like I said before, I love getting reviews and hearing your feedback and questions! So keep it up!


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: hey everyone! This chapter is for our 500 review mark! Don't worry, this won't be a full recap. It's just the next chapter of the story in Suigetsu's POV!

So let's get this chapter rolling!

Chapter 8:

Suigetsu stared at Erin. Waiting for a signal to make his move. The man who was meant to guard them had come in and used a piece of cloth to gag them so they couldn't give away their position. Of course, Erin made it as difficult as possible for the man by biting, kicking and squirming. She even succeeded in a head butt before she was gagged.

Suigetsu would join in but he gave up on escape a while ago. He's been in this stupid wagon for five weeks now. But, he's willing to give this plan a chance. Even if it's going to hurt a lot.

Erin glared at the man with burning hatred until he even shifted uncomfortably in her stare. Suigetsu inwardly smirked, she's even pulling off killing intent. If they actually do escape he's planning on inviting her to Kiri to become a ninja. She'd probably even be a good swordsman.

It sounds like we've made it past the front gates and Erin still hasn't given any sign of a signal. 'She must be waiting until we're in the village so we'll cause more of a ruckus'

The caravan stops in front of a building and the man moves to carry them. Suigetsu furiously looks to Erin for a signal. Erin just shakes her head. But as soon as the man picks her up she lets out muffled screams and kicks furiously! She isn't necessarily hitting the man but she's making a full effort to hit everything in the wagon. Making a very large amount of sound. That must be his signal.

Suigetsu worked as hard as he could to bring up chakra. This made the chakra cuffs painfully tight. Suigetsu gritted his teeth and continued pressing on.

Eventually the cuffs became so tight that they cut into his skin and he could feel blood dripping down his hands. 'That should be enough'

He stopped trying to use chakra but the cuffs didn't loosen, making him almost want to scream in pain.

But he couldn't. If he did, they might just kill both of them. Well that's at least what Erin said. But they've been putting up with a lot of her crap.

Their guard picked Suigetsu up and threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Suigetsu felt relief when the man didn't notice the blood dripping from his wrists. He was carried into a cramped house and promptly dropped beside Erin.

Erin gave him a questioning look and he nodded. Erin then bit at the gag keeping her from speaking furiously until it was loosened enough for her to spit it out.

"Hey!" She shouted in her accented voice making the group of people stop what they're doing.

"There's no point in shouting, brat. We have a silencing seal on this house." One of the women answered.

"It's not that!" Snapped Erin angrily, "my friends cuffs are too tight and it's making him bleed!" There was a angry note to her voice making her sound like she meant business.

"That's probably his own fault." Answered another, "he must have been trying to use chakra if they're tight enough for him to start bleeding."

Everyone started working again until Erin spoke, "he needs treatment! If he keeps bleeding like this he could die from blood loss." She paused, "also, your chakra cuffs are rusty and he could get tetanus."

"What the hell is tetanus?" A beefy man asked flatly.

"A sickness that people die from because of rust!" Snapped Erin, "Suigetsu needs treatment!"

A man glared at her, "I call BS. You made it up." He growled.

One of the younger looking women glanced at him sheepishly, "erm, there kind of is a thing that you could get from rust." The man turned around to glare at her, "Orochimaru-dono wouldn't be happy if we lost this one."

The man still looked like he was going to argue but he was interrupted by a younger looking boy. "There isn't much he could do anyway. We've only given him just enough water to survive."

That was a lie. Throughout the last day, Erin had constantly called them to give him a drink. They have been giving him enough water to last until he ran out of chakra without even noticing.

The beefy man grumbled and moved out of the way as the young girl move and released his chakra cuffs. Her hands then shone with medical ninjutsu.

Suigetsu looked at Erin and she gave a nod.

Suigetsu's arms suddenly turned into water and he threw the girl across the room with ease.

"What the-" Suigetsu grabbed the nearest sword and stabbed through the chest.

"You should think twice before kidnapping a future member of the seven ninja swordsman." Stated Suigetsu as he fended off another attacker.

There was a brief moment's pause and he took the chance and cut off Erin's bindings.

The girl was immediately up and ran at the nearest person and successfully punched them in the face.

Several people ran to attack Suigetsu forcing him to focus on them. Now that they hadn't caught him off guard like last time, Suigetsu easily defended himself with a mix of kenjutsu and his kekkei genkai. Whenever he glanced at Erin, she was either dodging or in a defensive stance

She isn't a ninja and isn't even close to their level. Erin glanced at him and cried for him to watch out. Suigetsu promptly avoided being impaled by a sword and turned to her to thank her but she wasn't there anymore.

Suigetsu furiously looked around and spotted her being held under the beefy man's arm like a sack of potatoes. Erin angrily kicked and screamed and bit but the man jumped out of the window anyway.

"ERIN!" Suigetsu shouted at the top of his lungs and tried to run to the window but was immediately intercepted.

"Oh no you don't, brat." Growled a women getting in his way. He could see black markings moving across her body.

Suigetsu gritted his teeth and ran at the women flashing through hand signs, "water release: hidden in the mist jutsu!" He shouted. The mist gave him enough cover to avoid the women all together and he jumped out of the window. "ERIN!" He shouted trying to spot her among the buildings of sand.

It took him a few seconds to see her. She was still being carried by the man. But something was different. She wasn't struggling like before but she looked like she was writhing in pain. After a few seconds she suddenly moved and hit the man hard in the chest. It looked like a simple punch but the man screamed in pain and immediately dropped her.

"ERIN NO!" Suigetsu shouted shooting forward to try and catch her while she fell. But somebody caught him in mid air and slammed him into the ground.

"State your village and name." A voice growled.

"But she's in trouble!" Shouted Suigetsu struggling to run and reach Erin before she hit the ground.

A sharp blow to the back of his head sent him into blackness.

Suigetsu let out a groan of pain and slowly opened his eyes. He was in a room which appears to be made out of metal. But he could see dark red stains. He's in an interrogation room.

Before long the door opened and close and Erin was shoved in. She was carefully holding an IV with her and there were dark rims around her eyes.

She spotted him and immediately moved forward to stand by him. "Are you alright Suigetsu?" She asked.

"Yeah. Are you?" He answered, "why are you holding an IV?"

She smirked, "so this kinda happens when you refuse food and water for four days."

"Erin." Suigetsu face palmed but continued, "wait a second, what happened? I saw you fall."

"Oh yeah, after that guy dropped me a puppet caught me." She said with a frown. "After that I was kind of knocked out."

"I was caught by someone too. But, how did you get that guy to drop you?"

She immediately looked nervous and she looked around. "Alright." She whispered quietly, "I think I might actually have chakra." She said.

"What? Ho-"

"Be quiet." She interrupted, "but my chakra is weird. Like it's not natural or something, like it isn't mine." She slowly lifted her hand and gritted her teeth in pain as she called the chakra up.

Suigetsu let out a gasp. He could now SEE her blood vessels but it looked like they were turning black. Erin allowed wisps of chakra to release along her arm and hand. Yep. that chakra is black.

"I punched the guy who was carrying me and he passed out."

They both jumped as the door behind them opened and slammed closed. The chakra coming from Erin immediately stopped and retreated up her arm.

"Well hello there!" Said a very tall man, fake cheerily, "would you mind taking a seat?" They both moved and sat down in two out of the three chairs in the room. There was a table and there were two chairs on one side and one on the other. So they assumed where they should go. "No, I want the girl to sit right there." The man pointed at the opposite side of the table.

Erin didn't say anything but gave the man an irritated look that they both caught as she moved to the opposite end. If Suigetsu's learned anything about her throughout the time that he's known her, she is a strong believer in treating others the way you want to be treated. And if others don't follow this, it could get to the point where Erin has zero respect for them.

Once Suigetsu sat down, the man sat down beside him. Uncomfortably close. Suigetsu saw Erin's eyes narrow more. "Please state your names and villages." Said the man cheerily.

"Jabba the Hut of the galactic-" Erin was interrupted when the man slammed a kunai knife onto the table. Making both of them jump.

"Don't screw with me, brat. I could kill you right now if I felt like it." The man snapped, then promptly changed back to his cheery demeanor. "Maybe you should go first." He said gesturing to Suigetsu.

"Suigetsu of Kirigakure." The man smiled at him and then turned to Erin.

Erin glared at him and leaned back casually in her chair. "Erin of Konohagakure." She answered. The man gave her a closed eyed smile, which clearly made her blood boil more.

"Good good. Now, why are you two, from different villages here in Sunagakure on this fine day?"

"We were kidnapped by people who work for someone named Orochimaru. I'd guess they brought us here so they could take more people." Stated Erin. Their interrogator turned to Suigetsu expectantly.

"Ditto." He said simply. Making the man frown at him. "There was a guy who tried to run off with Erin. What happened to him?"

"We captured him. But it looks like he's in a coma. Do you two know what happened to that man?" Suigetsu looked at Erin expectantly.

She looked the man directly in the eye and kept her expression slack. "I think that he tried to kill himself with paper bombs but it didn't work." She stated. The man looked at her for a second and moved on. So apparently Erin is a good actress. Huh.

The man let out a sigh. "We'll contact your villages to come and pick you up." He paused, "until then you two will be placed under house arrest." He got up and gestured for them to follow.

"Huh, so it looks like we'll be stuck with each other for a few more days." Stated Suigetsu.

"Hn." Erin answered simply in agreement.

So, they're stuck in Suna for a couple of days! I definitely wasn't expecting 500 views this quickly… So keep up the reviews and thanks for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: sorry that I took so long to update. I was camping and canoeing and stuff.

Chapter 9:

We were lead to a small house with two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and a small living room with one couch. This is where we will have to deal with each other for several more days. They also placed a team of genin to watch us. And which team of genin could they have possibly given us? Gaara's team. Of course it's Gaara's team.

Honestly I am a little excited. Maybe I could get him to be a little less crazy before the chunnin exams. But he wasn't there when the team showed up.

"I've never seen of genin team with less than three people before." Stated Suigetsu with a frown, "I feel underestimated. Where's your third member?"

"Err, he's busy right now." Said the girl who I'm guessing is Temari, "he'll be here tomorrow."

"And besides it's none of your business." Said Kankuro from beside her.

"Just go about your business while we're here." Stated their sensei. What's his name again? Oh yeah, Baki.

"We have absolutely nothing to do in here." Whined Suigetsu.

"There are papers and pencils." I said, "we could draw."

Suigetsu glares at me, "I wasn't talking to you." He snapped, "and besides, I'm not some sort of art freak like you."

My eye twitched. Art is a way to express you emotions and make something beautiful. "If you insult art again I'm going to shove a piece of paper and a pencil down your throat." I said in a cheerful tone.

"W-what?" Suigetsu looks slightly shocked at the nice note I added into my words. He took a step back.

Temari, looked shocked. This was my second sentence in this entire meeting and it's a threat.

Kankuro rolls his eyes, "you two argue like an old married couple." He states, Suigetsu looks slightly horrified while I just laugh and walk towards the drawer.

It takes me a few minutes to set everything out on a table. And once I'm done I sit down, beginning to work with no intention to stand up any time soon. After a few minutes I sense Suigetsu come over and look over my shoulder. After about ten seconds, feeling slightly uncomfortable I lean over my drawing so he can't see.

"What're you drawing?" He asks.

"A dragon."

"That looks like a lizard with wings." He stated flatly. I can understand why he would think that. This is a western style dragon, it probably looks a lot different from what he sees as a dragon.

"This is what they look like from where I come from." I allow the slip, "and besides, it has wings and breathes fire. Isn't that what a dragon is?"

"No. That is not what a dragon is. And aren't you from Konoha?" He asks, I cast a nervous glance at the ninjas in the room. It doesn't matter what they hear anyway.

"I'm from somewhere very far away." I said, and caught the dissatisfied look from Suigetsu. "You wouldn't know it if I told you." I let out a sigh and leaned back in my chair.

That was basically how the day was spent. I sat there and drew while everyone else minded their own business except for Suigetsu.

When I get up the next morning I can't help but feel nervous. Gaara should be at the point in his life where he has "realized" that his purpose is to kill people. In my world he was one of my favourite characters. But this is real life and he's low-key crazy. No, not low-key. He's crazy.

My thoughts are interrupted when Suigetsu walks out of his room and promptly lays down on on the only couch in the small house with a huge yawn.

"You look productive today." I stated while looking down at him.

"You're not looking much better. I'm SO bored." He whines.

"You could alwa-"

"I don't want to draw." He growled

"You could do chakra exercises." I said.

"Wouldn't we get in trouble though?" He asked, sitting up.

I frown, resting two fingers in my chin, "well, it isn't against the rules if you don't get caught right?" I asked.

"Wow, you're sneaky." Said Suigetsu.

I watched carefully while he picked up a pencil and balanced it on his hand. He frowned with focus and let go of it.

I let out a yell of surprise as five shinobi erupted from the walls and pinned Suigetsu to the ground. "What do you think you're doing?" Asked one of them.

"It's just a chakra exercise, honest!" Shouted Suigetsu furiously as he squirmed. "I wasn't gonna do anything."

It ended up that they let us with a warning and once they were gone I felt a smirk tug at my lips. "Pft," I covered my mouth, trying to stifle my laughter.

"What's so funny!?" Snapped Suigetsu. Unable to hold it in anymore I burst into laughter. Suigetsu's face slowly contorted with irritation as he realized something. "You suggested that on purpose, you sadist!" He said pointing an accusing finger at me. I sat down on the couch and curled into myself, trying to get my laughter under control.

"At least you know that we aren't being underestimated!" I force out. Suigetsu simply glared at me as I slowly got myself under control. I sit up and look up at him only to start a giggling fit again.

I suddenly stop laughing and sit up. I can sense four chakra signatures walking this way. One's an adult and three are younger. So it must be them. One of their signatures is unstable, I'm guessing that that's Gaara.

"What's up?" Asked Suigetsu in a concerned way.

"Our guards are here." I stated, looking at the door expectantly.

Suigetsu let out an irritated sigh, "they don't even need the genin to watch us. The five chunnin in the wall are probably good enough."

I shush him as the group reaches the door. It opens and only three people walk in. Look between them and immediately spot a fellow ginger with a gaurd on his back. The person that's missing is their jounin sensei who simply walked away from the door once the genin walked in.

"Where'd your sensei go? Erin says he was right with you until you came in." Asked Suigetsu loudly. Earning an irritated look from me.

"He felt that we could handle this mission on our own with Gaara here." Said Kankuro in a manner that screamed "overconfident".

"Maybe if you keep talking like that, we won't give you breakfast." Said Temari as she held up a box.

Everyone talking is muffled as I watch Gaara. Who appears to be staring into space while standing unnaturally still. I can't help but want to help him. I feel as if I can understand how he feels. My parents didn't want me from the day my mother was pregnant. They thought that Conner was good enough, and they showed obvious favouritism throughout my entire life. Other family members joined in and their favourite way to show that they didn't want me there was to ignore me. Only Conner showed that he cared. My parents also drank and smoked when we were around and they could get physically abusive. A lot of my memories involved my mother calling me an idiot while snacking the side of my head. Most of the time she wasn't even drunk for that. So Conner called child protective services and we were moved into foster care.

"Erin!" Snapped Suigetsu while he waved a hand in my face. "If you're done being in your own world you should have a dumpling." I gave him a confused look and took one. Kankuro and Temari were staring at me as I ate. I hope they didn't notice what or who I was watching.

I quickly finished eating and walk towards the table where my drawings are. Today I'm gonna do zen tangle. It's basically the equivalent to doodles but it can be counted as professional art. I feel as if I should approach Gaara, but my introverted self won't allow it. So far Suigetsu has been the only exception and that was because our lives were in danger.

I glance over at Suigetsu to see him sharpening a kunai. "You've got to be kidding me." I verbalize my thoughts, "an innocent chakra exercise isn't allowed but a child sharpening daggers is?"

"I'm not a child." Snapped Suigetsu hot headedly, "I bet I'm older than you."

"How old are you Suigetsu?" I asked.

"Twelve." I immediately fill the room with sarcastic laughter and Suigetsu looks slightly scared. "How old are you Erin?"

"Fourteen." I said gleefully. Suigetsu gaped at me.

"WHAT YOU DON'T LOOK FOURTEEN! YOU LOOK MY AGE!" I smirk at him and silently get to work while Suigetsu had his little childish freak out session.

Eventually Suigetsu fell silent and started sharpening his kunai again while I skillfully drew various patterns and lines. After a while I felt a presence behind me and I turned around to snap at Suigetsu. I jump when I realize that it isn't Suigetsu, it's Gaara.

"Uh, hello." I said awkwardly, come on Erin, think of something to say! "How are you?" Oh god, that was so bad. Conner would have done such a better job.

Gaara simply stares at me for a moment. I can feel Kankuro and Temari keeping a careful eye on us. "What are you drawing?" He asks quietly. I smile at him, which only earns a skeptical look.

"This is zen tangle." I said moving over so he could see. I said zen tangle in English so it must sound fancier. "Uh, it's basically just doodles that can be counted as full art. Heh,heh, professional doodling." I explained awkwardly. I feel like I want to face-palm.

Gaara leans over to get a better look. He's within a two-feet radius and I don't like it. It's not his fault, this is basically how it's like for me with most people. My personal bubble reaches from one to two feet around me. Unless I'm doing Tae Kwon Do.

After about three minutes of him just looking at it I decide to speak up, "do you want to try?" I ask while moving a piece of paper and a pencil to the opposite side of the small table. Gaara looks at it for a moment, then sits down after carefully setting down his gaurd and begins making marks across the paper.

I let out a small sigh of relief and glance at Temari and Kankuro who seem to be genuinely surprised.

Today is my third day here and the ninjas from Konoha should arrive to pick me up. This morning Gaara's team came to take me to the front gates but Suigetsu insisted that he would come and see me off too. And now he's acting really weird.

I look at him while he nervously hops from foot to foot. What's wrong with him? "Hey Suigetsu are you alright?" I ask. Making him jump at least a foot in the air.

"I-I'm fine!" He answered quickly, and resumed the action. I look at the others quizzically and Temari face-palmed.

'What?'

I silently look out towards the desert. I don't know how long I watch but eventually, I spot four dots moving towards the village.

"Well, I'm guessing that's my escort." I said, squinting at them. "But it looks like we have a bit of time."

"Hey Erin! I need to ask you something!" Said Suigetsu nervously.

"Mm?"

"How would you feel about coming with me to Kiri and becoming a ninja?" He asked, then immediately looked down with his face turning red.

"Uhh," I look at him blankly. Whatdoisaywhatdoisaywhatdoisay? "I don't know if I should. I ow Konoha for taking me in and I can't just switch villages whenever I feel like it."

Suigetsu looked thoroughly disappointed, "p-please don't get upset! I'll see you around!" I said quickly.

Suigetsu let out a sigh and dug into his pocket. "Well if I'm not gonna be around I don't want you to get kidnapped again." He said as he took out a dagger and handed it to me. "That would be a lot of trouble wouldn't it?"

I turn the dagger over in my hands. It's beautiful. It had a leather handle and the blade was sharpened with very faint carvings of scales on it.

I look at Suigetsu and smile, "thank you."

Suigetsu gave me a toothy grin, "no problem."

I look over at the figures who are coming this way to see two of them running at full speed this way. The two who are running are clad in green.

Oh no.

Gai and Lee screech to a stop right in front of me. Lee stares at me for a second and suddenly bursts into tears. "I am so sorry!" He cries, "I should not have left you on your own!"

"Erm, I'm fine Lee." I stated. Pocketing the dagger.

"You were kidnapped!" Said Gai loudly, "you aren't OK."

"Look, I'm fine. I'll make it." I said, gesturing to myself.

"You are so youthfully humble!" Said Lee and I had to dodge a hug.

"Well, shall we get going then?" Asked Gai.

"Hold on a second." I said and I turned around to Suigetsu, "I'll see you around." I held out my arm for a fist bump.

"See you." Answered Suigetsu as he accepted the fist bump.

"By guys!" I said as I waved to the team.

Temari and Kankuro waved back. And I turned around to walk with Lee and Gai.

"Who is the youthful young man?" Asked Lee and I immediately let out a grown.

The journey back had actually been pretty fast and exciting because Gai despised to turn it into a race. Except I had to ride piggyback which I didn't enjoy but I didn't verbalize that. Whenever we had breaks the team would ask about what happened while I was away.

When we reached Konoha I had made a decision. When I first caught sight of the gates I immediately spotted Minami. When she saw me she ran out at forced me into a hug. "I was so worried." She said.

"Minami." I said escaping the hug. Earning a confused look. "I want to become a ninja.

A/N: again, sorry for the late update! So now Erin wants to be a ninja! What is going to happen!? Find out next time on: Bladed Wings!


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: If any if you are wondering why I called Zetsu powerful, it may not be necessarily strong or meant for combat but how about being able to split up into clones and the clones are durable? It can also merge into trees and the ground. It can randomly go wherever it wants to completely undetected. And Zetsu can do much more. In my books, Zetsu is powerful. So yeah.

Chapter 10:

Minami had tried to talk me out of becoming a ninja by explaining that I was hypersensitive to chakra. But I just laughed and showed her the black chakra that I had. Though I didn't tell her that it hurt. A lot. She did kind of freak out at the fact that you could see my blood vessels when I used it. But I managed to convince her.

After I convinced her, I convinced the hokage. With the whole "I owe this village my life" stuff. I even added in some honorifics. He said that he would put me with this year's graduating class and he gave me my own apartment. (Even though I think that that is very irresponsible). I guess I'm gonna be with the rookie nine then. I'm not sure how I feel about that since they seem to attract trouble.

I was given the rest of the month to prepare and I've been using it. Teaching myself longer and tougher words. As well as training with Lee whenever he wasn't on a mission. I'm getting the feeling that I'll be way ahead in taijutsu compared to the rest of the class. I've also been doing a lot of chakra exercises so that I'll have enough control to learn what they teach me. And I'm trying to build a high pain threshold to my chakra.

Today is the first day of class. I feel really nervous as I pack my lunch. Just a sandwich. Should I approach other people? Or should I not approach anyone at all? Should I be the shy new girl? Or should I be the stone cold bitch I know that I am?

I let out an irritated sigh as I close my lunch box. Conner would handle this way better than me. I wish he was here. I feel a tear in my eye and I immediately wipe it away.

Don't you dare.

I take a deep breath and step out of the apartment door. As I silently walk along the streets I take note on how quiet it is. It is the morning after all. Despite my immediate excuse I feel anxiety bubble up inside of me. I can't afford to be kidnapped again.

I widen my stride and walk faster. I wonder if somebody is watching me right now? No. Nobody is watching me and I'll be fine.

Before I know it, I'm standing in front of the academy. I'm at least twenty minutes early. 'Should I wait until the other students arrive?' I wonder, 'no. People will just stare at me.'

When I come to my decision, I stiffly walk into the building. Once I'm in I look around. It looks an awful lot like the front entrance in my old school.

"Oh, you're here early." Said a voice and I jump, looking to my left. It's the hokage.

"I'd rather be early than late." I said. He frowned at me.

"I suppose I should introduce you to your home room teacher, Erin-kun." I nod at him and follow silently. Slightly grateful that he isn't trying to get into a conversation with me.

As we walk, I try to memorize the halls, it would suck if I managed to get lost while looking for my classroom.

Eventually we reached a door with the number 46 on it. I'm glad that numbers are the same here, but also they're pronounced differently so there have been many mistakes from me.

When we walk in, I look around the room. It looks almost exactly the same as it looks in the anime. It's weird. I always notice my surroundings before I notice other people. I nearly jump when I spot a man in a chunin vest. He has a scar across his nose and his brown hair is up in a ponytail. That must be Iruka.

"Hello Iruka-sensei." Greeted the hokage.

Iruka looked up from his desk, "hello hokage-sama!" He answered walking over to us.

"I wanted to introduce you to Erin-kun." He looks down at me, "Erin-kun, this is Iruka-sensei. Your home room teacher."

I look up at him. Do I even want to be in this class? "Hi Mr-I mean Iruka-sensei." I nearly face-palm. First screw up.

"Hello there Erin-san. I'm looking forward to teaching you!" He says without batting an eye. That's nice, pretending he didn't notice. "I'll introduce you to the class once they're all here. Until then, I think we should talk about where you are in your education." I nod my head.

The hokage waves goodbye and leaves the room.

"What I had in mind was that you would take a few tests to see where you are." Iruka said, taking out a few papers. "This one's for your history, this one's for health, this is for math. I was thinking you could do these tests after class today if you aren't busy." He explained.

I nod in agreement, "umm, what are we going to do today? As a class?" I ask.

Iruka looked genuinely surprised, "well… Today for the morning we're going to go through the third shinobi war in history and then we'll go outside for shuriken practice. Then it'll be lunch and we'll do some studying on the chakra network then some practicing in taijutsu. And by the way after that you and the other girls need to attend a kunoichi class." I nod along as he explained but frown when he mentions a kunoichi class. I'm getting the feeling that that's going to be my least favourite class throughout these next four months.

Iruka is interrupted when the door opens and closes behind us. It sounds like my first classmate is here. "Sasuke! Good morning!" Greets Iruka.

Sasuke huh? I turn to look at a raven haired boy who was silently staring at me. "Sasuke, this is Erin-san. She's going to be a classmate from now on." Sasuke simply "hn'd" in acknowledgment and moved to his seat.

I simply stood behind Iruka as more and more students filed in. But he didn't introduce me to everyone like he introduced me to Sasuke, luckily. Eventually, the room was basically full and everyone was ready to begin class.

"Everyone, we have somebody new here today who I would like to introduce!" Said Iruka as he beckoned me to stand beside him. "This is Erin-san! She will be joining our class for the rest of the year!" I immediately hear and see people whispering.

"Does anyone have any questions for her?"

That is something that we do not need in this situation. I shrink backwards a little bit. As several people put their hands up. Iruka called someone out. "Where are you from?"

"Uhh, you wouldn't know the place." Iruka calls somebody else out.

"Are you a transfer student?"

"No." The answer brings more whispers. Iruka then calls a familiar pink haired girl out.

"Are there any boys that you like in the class?" She asks and I immediately feel my eye twitch. People like this make me very, very, angry.

"No, and I came here to become a shinobi. Not to find a date." I speak before Iruka can intervene.

Iruka can clearly see my irritation and decided that the time for questions is over. "Alright, it's time to begin class! Erin, there's a spot in between Shino and Sasuke for you to sit."

I feel resentment as I walk to the spot that was pointed out. Can't I sit by anyone other than Sasuke? I glance at one of the higher chairs and see Sakura seething with anger. I can't tell whether she's angry because of my answer to her question, or if it's because I'm sitting by Sasuke. Heh,heh, maybe I can give him a chance.

With the sweetest smile I can muster towards Sakura, I sit down. My smile turns into a smirk when I see her eye twitch. I feel triumph as I turn around to look at the front, pulling my binder out.

"Aburame Shino." I jump and turn to look to my right. The kid in the tan trench coat with dark glasses was facing my general direction. Oh, I guess he just introduced himself.

"Lattè Erin." I say as I write "history" at the top of the first page in English. Shino simply nods and looks ahead. I look to my left and eye Sasuke. He was in the same stance as he alway is in the anime while sitting in class. His fingers were woven in front of his face. Typical.

Sasuke catches me looking and asks, "what are you staring at?" Wow, he's a bit of a jerk. Two can play at this game.

"Nothing much." I say in a light hearted tone. I immediately feel pride well up in my chest at my level of savagery. On a scale from one to Erin how savage to you feel today?

"Tch!" Sasuke looks ahead once again and I come to a decision. Stone cold bitch it is.

I stare down at the two shuriken in my hands. I can sense eyes watching me and draw in a nervous breath. Should I try? I lift my arm, ready to throw. Nope.

I drop my arms and turn around, "Iruka-sensei, I don't even know how to properly hold shuriken." I said bluntly, earning several whispers.

"Oh, come this way Erin-san. Everyone else, find a spot to practice." Iruka said as he lead me away. "You should have told me in the first place. Here, watch what I do." Iruka dropped into a stance and smoothly lifted his arms. He easily hit the target in a straight line.

"You try it now." He said, I took my shuriken and mimicked his stance. He didn't correct it so I guess that I did it right. I lifted my hand and threw them. The shuriken went smoothly thru the air but I don't think I threw them hard enough because they hit the ground about two metres from the target.

"Excellent work! That was perfect other than not having enough power behind your throw!" Encouraged Iruka. I look at the other students and everyone else is hitting their targets. "You stay here and practice. Just call for me if you need any help."

I nod at him and he walks away. I turn and narrow my eyes at my target, I lift my hand again and throw harder this time. The shuriken spun and hit the very bottom of the target. Not enough power. I throw the shuriken as hard as I can and this time I hit the edges of the target.

I glance to my right and I notice Sasuke staring at me. He immediately turns back around and throws five shuriken which hit in a straight line. Is it just me or can I sense a bitter rivalry coming?

"Is that seriously the best that you can come up with?" I glare at the pack of girls standing several feet in front of me. It's lunch hour now and these brats decided that they wanted to try and pick a fight.

"What do you mean? Spotty?" Said Ino, and the gremlins behind her started giggling.

"I've heard a two year old come up with a better insult." I deadpan, "now excuse me, while I go and feed myself the sustenance that my body needs to survive." I turn my back and walk away. I can hear a lot of shouting and insulting coming from behind me. But I ignore it just to spite them.

I continue walking, looking for a place to eat until someone calls, "hey!" I turn around and see three boys sitting in a circle, one of the boys was waving at me. "You should comes sit with us!"

The boy who waved me over patted the spot beside him and I sat down. "I'm Akimichi Choji! This is Nara Shikamaru and that's Inuzuka Kiba."

"Hi." I said quietly.

"We saw what you did there with the Sasuke fan girls! I also saw what you did with Sasuke when he asked what you were staring at! That was awesome!" Kiba laughed, making me smile.

"So where ARE you from?" Asked Shikamaru and I hesitated.

"A place called Canada. You probably haven't heard of it." The boys have me a strange look.

"No, we haven't heard of it." Said Kiba with a frown, "what do you think Akamaru?" I jump as a small white dog emerges from Kiba's sweater and barks.

"You definitely look foreign." Said Shikamaru with a frown. "What made you decide to become a shinobi?" He asked.

I spent the lunch hour mostly explaining things and answering their questions. But I can't help but wonder, where's Naruto?

So I found out where Naruto was. Apparently he slept in and he tried to sneak in through the window in the middle of our class on chakra networks. It was very amusing might I add. He got into a lot of trouble. Currently he's getting a harsh talking to by Iruka while Misuki is setting us up for taijutsu practice.

"...and you go with Shikamaru, Erin-san." I jump into the small ring where we're supposed to spar. With Shikamaru not far behind. "This spar will last until one has pinned the other to the ground for ten seconds. No chakra is allowed in this. Go!"

I immediately moved into sparring stance, "look, I don't wanna hit a girl." Said Shikamaru.

"And I don't want to hit a twelve year old." I said. With a flash of irritation.

"Alright, whatever." Said Shikamaru and he half-heartedly sent a punch in my direction.

I easily caught the punch and twisted so that his momentum made him fall. Shikamaru lay there for a second, winded, then he went to pick himself up. I didn't give him the chance as I moved forward and kneeled down. Firmly pressing my knee on his chest to pin him. He easily gave up and I won the match.

I moved off of the ring. I think I might like this ninja school.

'Kunoichi class is after this.'

Never mind.

A/N: so there is basically Erin's first day of school!

Keep on reviewing! I love hearing your comments and questions about this story!


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: yay! We've 1000 views so it's time for another character's POV!

Special thanks to LetsSeeIfICanDoThisToo! Thanks for the advice! It helps me become a much better writer. I'll try my best to make this story better!

~0~

Chapter 11:

Minami's POV

Ever since she was a little girl, Minami had known that she wanted to be a medic-nin. Her parents encouraged it too, they always said that her caring nature would be useful in the medical field. At the age of fifteen she entered into the academy for medic-nins and she graduated at age twenty one with flying colours. Fairly quickly after that she joined the ANBU black ops. After working there for a year she decided to move to working in the hospital. Minami had thrived in working with the sick and injured. She especially liked working children and youth. The way they were so easily pleased with a toy or a book. Even young genin were usually pleasant to deal with. Except when some of them tried to sneak out of the hospital for training. She has had several occasions with Rock Lee who had only been a shinobi for one week when he was brought in due to exhaustion. Minami has dealt with countless and various cases.

But she didn't expect to be dealing with a case like this.

Minami was talking with several other nurses about one of her patients when an ANBU operative in a bear mask appeared, holding a red haired girl over his shoulder.

"I found her in the forest of death, she needs medical attention." A doctor, herself and two other nurses rushed forward. Within seconds the young girl was on a stretcher. As Minami helped carry her she looked her up and down. She can't sense any chakra coming off of her at all and there's a cast covering her neck. She's already in a hospital gown so that raises many questions.

On top of what appears to be medical, this girl looks completely foreign. She is short and has a curvier and more muscular stature. The spots on her face and arms make Minami wonder if she's part of a clan. Similar to how the Inuzuka and Akimichi have markings on their faces.

The doctor, Haru, carefully took off the cast around the girl's neck, revealing bruising that could only be caused if someone was trying to choke her to death. Everyone paused for a second to look before getting to work. What they needed to do first was get her chakra flowing. But as Haru sent pulse after pulse of chakra though her, nothing happened. Her system was taking the medical chakra but wasn't turning it into her own. The girl simply twitched and Minami saw her break into a cold sweat.

"What's wrong with her? She isn't dead, she's breathing regularly and her heart is beating." Asked one of the other nurses.

"I don't know, I don't think there's ever been a case like this." Minami whispered back as Haru let out a frustrated growl and simply moved on to healing her neck. At least that worked even though the girl let out a groan of pain.

They silently watched as the bruising healed. This girl seems so strange. without the cast on, Minami could now see a chain necklace that lead down to a large black, reptilian scale on her chest.

"I think that's the best that I can do." Said Haru with a sigh, "I think that we should inform Hokage-sama of this."

"I already have." The ANBU from before appeared with a flurry of leaves. "He suggested that we should wait until she wakes before trying to find anything out.

"Alright." Says Haru as he nods at him. Minami turned to look at the girl. She still had a look of faint pain on her face but otherwise she looked peaceful. Where could have she come from?

~0~

The girl as past out for two days.

Minami silently fixed the covers on the girl's bed. 'Two days,' she thought as she looked at her, 'how much longer will she be in this state?' All Minami knew was that the Hokage wanted some answers and soon. And there isn't much that you can do for investigating when whoever you're investigating is in a comatose state.

"How is she?" Asked Haru from behind her.

"Nothing's different. Her breathing's still regular along with her heartbeat." She paused, "and her body still hasn't converted your healing chakra." Haru let out a tired sigh and frowned at his clipboard.

"It's so strange, everything seems to be completely-" Haru is abruptly cut off by a voice behind them.

'Excuse me, where's my brother?' The girl speaks in a language neither of them had heard before.

"She's awake!" Minami gasped in shock, she then realized that upon waking, the girl must have released all of the healing chakra in her body.

"Inform Hokage-sama!" Said Haru, "I'll stay here." Minami nodded and ran out of the door. There should be an ANBU around. She'll find them.

"Hey!" She found one near the front entrance. "Tell Hokage-sama that the girl that we found is awake!" The man simply nodded and disappeared in a flurry of leaves. While Minami waited she was surrounded by various nurses and doctors who were asking questions about the girl. She tried her best to answer them but she knew little more than they did.

Within five minutes, the Hokage followed by Inoichi and Shukaku entered the hospital. "Hokage-sama. The girls room is this way." Greeted Minami before leading the way.

"Hello Minami-kun. I hope that we didn't take too long." Said Hiruzen as he walked alongside her.

"I didn't have to wait any more than five minutes." The Hokage didn't answer so Minami continued, "she is such a strange case. Her body seems to function completely without chakra. She has released all of the healing chakra out of her body. Also, when she woke up she spoke in some other language."

"Her body functions completely without chakra?" Asked Shukaku as he turned to look at her.

"Yes. At first we thought that her comatose state was because of lack of chakra but she just proved us wrong." Minami let out a frustrated sigh as she reached the door and grabbed the handle, "and to add to that her chakra network is far more intricate than the average person's. It doesn't make any sense!" The group simply watched with grim expressions as Minami opened the door and led them in.

"Hokage-sama." Greeted Haru as he bowed. Minami looked at the girl who was giving Hiruzen a very strange look with odd looking icy blue eyes.

"Haru-san, this is the girl?" Minami feels slightly irritated because she would clearly not get the room wrong.

"Yes, it appears as if she can't understand me. I've tried to speak with her but she just answers in gibberish."

"Minami-san mentioned that she has been speaking in another language." Said Shukaku, "it looks like she may not even be from any of the five great nations." While everyone was speaking Minami noticed the girl looking at everyone skeptically.

"Let me try. Are you from another hidden village? Kirigakure? Sunagakure?" The girl looked at him blankly. The old man sighed, "well I suppose that if you can't speak with us, keeping you would be useless and we may as well just kill you."

The group held their breath expectantly while the girl just looked frustrated.'I Can't understand you, why are you still trying to talk to me?' She mumbled.

The Hokage let out a sigh, "We could see if Inoichi-san can make a connection but judging by how she appears to be missing chakra…"

"Her chakra coils absorbed healing chakra just fine so it most likely won't hurt to try." Haru said. That sounded wrong. When they healed her it had looked as if she had been in pain. But Minami supposed that the chakra would necessarily kill her.

Everyone turned to the blond man who shrugged, "it's worth a try." Inoichi moved towards the girl.

The girl immediately stiffened and tried to move back despite being bound to the bed. 'What are you doing?' She growled, eyeing Inoichi suspiciously.

"Yamanaka Inoichi." He introduced himself and the girls eyes immediately flashed in recognition and she looked at him in disbelief.

It looked like the girl didn't know what to do for a moment, then she spoke in an accented voice, 'Lattè Erin.' Inoichi smiled at Erin. Minami didn't know if she had ever heard such a strange name.

"Erin-san, you probably don't understand me, but I'm going to attempt to enter you mindscape to talk to you." Inoichi said and he moved his hand forward.

'...huh?' The girl tried to moved back but wasn't given the chance to react as Inoichi firmly placed his hand on her head. And her eyes became blank.

There were a few moments of silence then suddenly Inoichi gasped and took a step back. And the girls eyes came back into focus.

"Inoichi-san, what happened?" Asked the Hokage with a look of concern.

"She kicked me out." Miami gaped at the girl. She must have ridiculously powerful chakra control to do that.

Shukaku looks confused as he looks at Erin, "...forcefully?" He asked.

"In a way, I suppose but I think that she didn't know what she was doing." Inoichi looked skeptical about the events.

"How so?" The Hokage asked.

"I could tell that she was in pain throughout the entire conversation that we had. It didn't seem like she was intending to end our conversation when she did."

"She must be extremely powerful with chakra control it she managed to force you out of her mindscape." Added Minami.

Inoichi looked at her with a slightly confused expression, "I didn't even manage to make it to her mindscape. I'm assuming that's because she doesn't have any chakra."

"If it was causing her pain then it most likely means that she's hypersensitive to chakra." Haru added into the conversation. The girl, Erin. Looked frustrated as we talked in front her.

"Did you learn anything about this case?" Asked the Hokage from where he was standing.

As Inoichi gave his debrief on how he learned that Erin is indeed foreign and cannot understand us, Minami could tell that the red haired girl was done paying attention to this conversation. After a few minutes the Hokage gave her the word to remove Erin's bindings. She did so and moved to leave with the others.

"Goodbye Erin-chan!" Hiruzen says cheerily as they walk out the door. Minami only spots at confused look from the girl as she mindlessly fumbled with her wrists. After the door closed, the Hokage turned to Minami and said in a serious tone, "I would like for you to keep an eye on her and keep me updated on your findings."

"Yes Hokage-sama." Answered Minami as she walked alongside the group down the hall.

~0~

For the first month, Erin appeared to be in a depressed state. Normally when Minami or other nurses were with her she would normally remain silent while she just looked at her hands or having a frustrated look as she tried to read one of the children's books Minami had brought her. Sometimes she tried to engage in conversation but the younger girl let out an exhausted sigh and just shook her head at her. But, in the middle of the second month Minami saw a sudden change in Erin's motivation.

Minami walked into Erin's room to see the girl holding a piece of paper and a pencil. The girl looked up at her and immediately put it down and moved to lift one of her books making Minami blink in surprise. Erin gestured to the book and to her with a hopeful expression.

"Oh, do you want me to read to you Erin-chan?" Minami moved and took the book out of the girl's hands and she nodded.

Minami spent the time that she had teaching Erin various easy words. The girl picked them up very easily and quickly. But, after a few weeks, Minami felt that she picked sentences up at an unnatural speed. It also felt as if she barely knew anything about the girl even though she'd known her for several months. At first Minami thought that Erin was lonely so she started suggesting that she spoke with the other nurses and or patients. The idea was immediately shot down with Erin's expression. Which made Minami feel as if the only reason why Erin reached it to her was to learn Japanese. Not to make friends or a connection. Unless Erin feels very strongly about a subject, it was very difficult to read her. And to add to that, she made it clear that she wasn't interested in talking about her past or herself in general. The only thing that Minami has caught is that the girl is very much a feminist. It was funny when the girl started asking about honorifics and she found out what "chan" meant. Ever since she has been asking specifically for people to not add it.

At about the third month, Minami had barely found out anything about the girl.

~0~

"Hokage-sama." Greeted Minami as she bowed.

"Minami-san, what do you have to report today?" Answered the Hokage as he looked up from his papers.

"Erin is learning Japanese very quickly. She's been forming sentences. Not very much has changed from my last report." Minami said and saw lord third nod and look down at his papers. "But Hokage-sama, the girl is very intelligent."

The Hokage looked back at her and smiled, "Nara smart?" Minami frowned in irritation at not being taken seriously.

"Uchiha Itachi smart. Orochimaru smart." This caught the Hokage's attention, "she isn't interested in forming bonds with others either. I'm concerned that she could become dangerous." Many of the hidden leaf's prodigy's have been lost due to their lack of connections. Minami had a feeling that Erin could with no doubt become as powerful as the two she compared her to if she had the motivation. The only thing that could stop her is her lack of chakra. And even then, she has proven that she can gain full control over someone else's chakra if it's in her system.

"Oh…" Said the Hokage with a long sigh. He was clearly remembering the two that Minami had mentioned.

"I believe that we should have her socialize with others her age. She should also leave the hospital soon." Minami suggested hopefully. Maybe they could still help her.

"That seems like a good idea. I will assign the mission as C-rank and find a team of genin. I already have a group in mind." The old man chuckled after mentioning that. "The team will come to the hospital tomorrow morning."

"Yes, thank you Hokage-sama."

~0~

The next day Minami waited in front of the hospital. The night before she had told Erin exactly what was going to happen and she didn't get a very pleasant reaction. Minami had expected it but a small voice in her head still thought of Erin as a regular fourteen year old. And a regular fourteen year old would normally be happy to leave the hospital or at least excited to meet real life shinobi. But of course Erin is Erin.

Minami let out a sigh as she waited. She wasn't allowed to have either Erin or the genin be aware of her past ANBU status. If Erin found out she would most likely lose the little trust that she had.

Minami spotted a group of genin and a jonin. She immediately recognized Lee and Gai, but she hadn't met the other two. Minami plastered a nervous look on her face. "Hi, I'm Minami! Are you the ninjas who are supposed to guard Erin and I?" She asked, waving them over.

"Indeed we are." Said the jonin named Gai, shaking Minami's hand.

"Well alright then!" Minami began leading them through the hospital. "Erin-san's been in this hospital for three months now and I thought that she could get some sunshine!"

"Why has she been in the hospital for so long? Has she been sick?" Asked a Hyuuga boy as he looked up at her with clear eyes.

"Well… For the first few weeks she was recovering but after that…" Minami paused, debating on what to say. "I guess she was just satisfied with staying in her room."

Gai looked surprised at the information, "what was the youthful maiden recovering from?"

Minami paused to add the nervous civilian idea, "... When she was found her neck was in a cast." She stated, "under the cast she was very badly bruised with signs of suffocation."

The group immediately drew in a sharp breath. The genin were clearly shocked at the news.

"I've tried talking to her about it but… She always changes the subject." Minami said nervously.

All three of the genin looked like they were thinking hard. Even Gai had a thoughtful look.

The girl broke the silence. "So… Other than that what's she like?" She asked.

"Oh, she is a very smart girl. She has learned so much Japanese in just three months!" Answered Minami with fake cheer. "She always asks me to teach her." Then Minami frowned. "But she usually avoids talking to people other than me so that's why I asked for a genin team." Minami allowed herself to ramble on about the girl until they reached her room.

Minami stopped in front of the door and turned to the group. "This is her room. She can be skittish with new people so-"

"Here we go!" Cried Lee as he rushed in. Typical.

The Hyuuga paused in front of the door with a look of confusion. Minami watched as he stopped for a second and whispered, "byakugan!" A frown immediately crossed the boys face. Seeing Erin clearly only brought more questions. The boy deactivated his byakugan and walked in along with the girl.

Minami turned to look at Gai and nodded at him. "You have a good team of genin." She stated, making Gai grin.

"I would accept nothing but the best!" He said expressively as he pointed a thumb at himself. Minami nodded and walked in.

"-bably scaring her!" Minami heard the girl yell. Minami saw Erin as she took everything in with a calculating look.

Lee turned and looked sheepishly back at Tenten, "oh right, I apologize for my loud behaviour." Erin stared at him harder.

Minami walked into the middle of the room to make herself noticed. "So everyone this is Erin-san!" She introduced clapping her hands to catch Erin's attention. "Erin, these are the nice ninjas who are going to escort us around the village

Erin looked around with a slightly confused look. "Aww, look she's shy!" Said Tenten, noticing that Erin hasn't said a word throughout this meeting."Don't worry Erin-san you're safe with us! Anyway my names Tenten! This is Lee, this is Neji, and this is Gai-Sensei!" She gestured to each person as she introduced them.

Gai got onto one of his knees. Erin simply frowned at him. "Whenever you're ready!"

Erin gave him a blank look and moved towards the door. "please do not add 'chan' to my name." She said in her accented voice. Minami hopes that she isn't like this for the entire day.

~0~

"This kimono looks nice, doesn't it Erin-san?" Minami asked as she gestured to a blue one that would bring out the girl's eyes.

"Meh." The girl shrugged, but she was only looking at the ninja gear that was across the room.

"Is that what you're going to say to everything that I show you!?" Minami snapped in frustration. The girl just shrugged at her and moved across the room to a rack.

"I like these pants." She said as she pulled off a pair of black ninja pants with noticeable pockets. "Oh, and this...umm…shirt." She picked up a lavender coloured sweater from the spot beside them.

"It's a sweater, Erin-san." Minami explained as she pointedly rolled her eyes. Tenten who had been in another aisle came over to them with a pale grey tank top.

"Ooo, nice choice Erin! This tanktop would be nice with that outfit!" She said enthusiastically. Minami could tell that the girl was trying to become friends with Erin. "Why don't you try them on?"

Much to Minami's annoyance that that outfit was the first thing that Erin tried on and it's what she picked. Erin didn't even try on one of the things Minami suggested. Ouch. Even Lee had convinced her to buy a pair of black ninja sandals. Erin didn't seem to like them very much but she must have got them to make the younger boy shut up.

Minami let out a sigh and turned to the girl. "What do you want to do Erin-San?" Asked Minami as she walked along side her.

Erin paused, a thoughtful frown on her face. "... Do ninjas have training?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah we do!" Cried Lee, jumping forward to walk beside her. This girl has got to be kidding. Minami didn't know if the girl could lean to the shinobi lifestyle even more than this.

"... Can I watch…?"

Minami gaped at her, "don't you have any other ideas sweety?" She asked, it had been a while since she had added a civilian reaction.

"Nope." Erin looked like she partially made her decision due to Minami's unpleasant reaction.

"Yes! Those who are youthful are always welcome to watch!" Cried Gai-Sensei as he immediately turned to lead the group to the nearest training ground. Minami let out a sigh and followed. She believed the girl would definitely become a shinobi if she wasn't missing her chakra.

~0~

A/N: I'm so sorry about the late update! I was busy and also it was as if this chapter didn't want to be written. I couldn't stop thinking of future chapters! Anyway, again thanks to LetsSeeIfICanDoThisToo, I'll definitely keep your advice in mind while I write!

Keep on reviewing! I love hearing your feedback and answering your questions!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

So… It turns out that kunoichi classes aren't that bad. In fact, my teacher told me that I was very good at it. Kunoichi classes involved; acting, learning about various poisons and how to administer them, how to seduce men to get information, etc. I think it's actually kind of awesome. But there is one thing that bothers me about it. Actually two. The first is having to learn proper etiquette. It sucks, I don't remember how many times I've been whacked by a metre stick for slouching. Then being whacked again for sassing about it.

The second is that the boys don't have to take it. Oh, of course all of us girls have to! But none of the boys. I'm currently having a very heated argument with my sensei who I haven't bothered to learn the name of.

"The boys don't have to take this class because generally the women are more likely to be underestimated!" Snapped my sensei.

"But if the boys take this class, they would be better at guessing if someone is attempting to infiltrate!" I answered, "if they knew what women are taught to do then they would be better at guarding the village." Sensei raised a brow at this.

"Are you speaking from personal experience? Erin?" I gave her an aggravated look. I didn't show it but that sent a small wave of hurt through me. "You know Erin, have you thought about using T&I as a profession?" I can tell that she's trying to change the subject.

I don't answer her question and simply continue with what I was talking about before. "Also, if the men knew the antidotes for the poisons that the women are using a lot of lives could be saved." I kept my voice monotone and my face blank throughout this conversation. "So why not?"

Finally, sensei snapped. "BECAUSE I SAID SO!" She yelled and slammed her hands on her desk. I smirked, when an adult brings out the "because I said so" it means that you put up a good argument.

"Haughty spotty's at it again." I heard a couple of girls whisper from behind me and my smirk widens. That was a brand new nickname that has come up due to my attitude specifically in this class.

"Now, I want you to leave this classroom this instant until I come and get you." She said as she composed herself and I moved to open and close the door behind me. "Promise me that none of you will never follow that nuisance." That's the last that I heard as I closed the door behind me.

Another small wave of hurt goes through me. I just wanted to bring up what I believed to be a good idea. I actually think that Konoha would benefit from all students taking these classes. Her reaction slightly reminded me of how I was treated with my parents.

'I don't think that that lady should be a teacher.' I thought as I leaned against the wall. I jump when I spot Iruka across the hall giving Naruto a good talking to. 'I wonder what he did this time.'

"Naruto! You can't just spar with Sasuke! You have to spar with your other classmates!" Said Iruka, "and when you don't get Sasuke as a sparring partner you can't just rush at him!" Oh, now I understand what happened.

"B-but Iruka-sensei! You don't understand! I have to beat Sasuke!" Yelled Naruto. I lean further back as I listen in on the conversation. "I just have to." Naruto said more quietly.

Iruka's tone softened, I can tell that he doesn't know that I'm here. "You'll get your chance Naruto, don't worry." I watched as Iruka smiled at him and patted his shoulder. An aching feeling's in my chest and I don't know why. "Are you ready to go?"

Naruto immediately returns to his usually exited self and pumps a fist in the air. "Y-yeah! Believe it!" I sigh and shove my hands in my pockets as they walk back outside without noticing me. Moments like this remind me of my brother.

I waited for about fifteen minutes before the bells rang and it was break time. "You're in SO much trouble haughty spotty!" Giggled Ino as she walked past with the other fan girls. I rolled my eyes as there were many "yeahs!" And name callings. I simply ignore them and look expectantly at the door.

After a few minutes of jeering the girls got bored and walked away. Only then do I hear a, "come in Erin." I shove my hands in my pockets and make my way into the classroom. When I'm in I see my sensei sitting in her desk while pinching the bridge of her nose. "Why must you always give me such a hard time?" She sighed and I only felt slightly bad.

I shrugged and answered, "if I don't, who else will sensei?" I asked genuinely. And the older women immediately glared at me and I smirked.

The women let out an exhausted sigh, "do you understand what you did wrong?" I shrug

"I displayed my thoughts on a subject like a regular human being?" I asked.

"That would be a no." Sensei said standing up, "you know, that this attitude might hurt your grades." I honestly didn't care. I do well in all of the other classes so I think that I can afford one not so perfect grade. I yawned and stretched to show my thoughts on what she just said. Sensei let out a tired sigh. "I need some help carrying my textbooks to the front office, will you help me?"

I shrugged, "sure." Honestly, I'm wondering why she isn't yelling at me. I moved and picked up several textbooks. And silently followed her out of the classroom. The older women looked straight ahead as I walked alongside her.

"...you know Erin, you suggested a good idea." I blink in surprise and looked at the women. But she didn't look at me. "...I could possibly bring the idea up with Hokage-sama. But don't get your hopes up!" She said begrudgingly. A smile creeps onto my lips as I look at her. She looks down at me and I feel it immediately disappear into a smirk. "But Erin. When you brought the idea up you didn't have to make it argumentative. If you hadn't said it in the tone of voice I would most likely have agreed with you in the beginning."

Huh. I'm not so sure about that since most adults normally have a bit of a god complex but whatever. I feel my smirk drop into a frown. And sensei immediately looks at me firmly, "don't look at me like that. I'm not lying to you." She said, "you need to realize that sometimes adults just want to help you." I want to believe her but, from all of my experience adults can be terrible judgemental jerks. The same goes for children. Humans can be cruel and that's a fact.

I jump out of my thoughts as we reach the front office and the bell almost immediately rings. Sensei turns to look at me and smiles, "get to class now. You wouldn't want to be late on your second week! And don't forget what I said!" She reaches a hand out to ruffle my hair and I immediately step back.

"Hai!" I turn and walk back to the next class for the day.

~0~

I walk into the next classroom and immediately frown when I look at the board. Ninjutsu. These past few weeks have been very difficult for me due to the fact that it burns whenever I use chakra. Of course I don't tell anyone but I am now one hundred percent sure that my chakra doesn't belong to me. Unless I call it up it's never running through my system and I can make an easy guess as to why. It comes from my necklace, I believe that it is a seal of some sort. I haven't figured out the details but I know that I'm not going to say anything about it because I'm pretty sure that either someone would try to steal it or I would be sent straight to T&I. It would be impossible for somebody to steal it though because I can't get it off myself. Ever since I first used chakra it's tightened so that I can't get the chain past my chin.

I sigh and move to sit by a window. I glance down and spot Sasuke. A bitter rivalry indeed has formed between us and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I guess it makes us both want to do better but I feel as if I'm somehow taking Naruto's place.

At that exact moment Naruto blasts into the room and points at Sasuke. "I'm gonna beat you this time Sasuke!" He shouts.

"Just try it, dobe." Sasuke answers as he rolls his eyes. Never mind. I think I'm good. I freeze for a moment when Sasuke turns to glare a challenge at me and I narrow my eyes at him. Bring it, brat.

Naruto looks annoyed at Sasuke, "don't ignore me, teme!" He shouted.

"Leave Sasuke-kun alone!" Snapped Sakura as she moved towards them. "Move Naruto!" She shoved him out of the way and plopped down beside Sasuke with a triumphant smile. I'm just about to intervene to defend Naruto when Iruka walks in.

"Naruto! What are you doing out of your seat?" He asks irritably, "find a spot and stay there!" Naruto hangs his head and moves to plop himself beside me.

"Yes Iruka-sensei." He said quietly, he then looked at me and a grin appeared on his face. "Hey Erin! I still can't BELIEVE that we're in the same class!" This is the most positive person I have ever met. When Naruto found out that I was in his class he decided that we were automatically friends. I suppose that makes sense because of our first meeting.

"Hi Naruto." The boys grin widened at my acknowledgment and he giggled. What a sweet little child. Too pure for this world. I allow a smile to crack on my lips and I turn forward to look at the front.

"Today we will be practicing the transformation jutsu!" Many people groan in response and Iruka just ignores them. "Follow me outside." Almost everyone dragged their feet as they followed.

"I hope you do better than last time! Haughty Spotty!" Whispers Sakura as she falls into step beside me.

"Screw off." I paused, "do you try to put me down because you have low self esteem?" I mocked. Sakura looked extremely irritated as she fell back.

We quickly reached the field where we practiced last time and Iruka stood in front of us. "Alright everyone! Find a spot and start practicing, I want you all to try and transform into somebody else in the class. I'll be just by the river if anyone needs any help." With that, he disappeared with a flurry of leaves.

I look around, trying to decide who I should try to transform into. With the transformation jutsu, you form a layer of chakra over your skin which you have to manipulate to look like someone or something else. I'm looking for someone who looks slightly similar to me in body type and highly. Because I have absolutely no idea how to make myself look taller.

"Pst, Erin!" I turn to look at one of the civilian boys to see a taller girl with fair skin and brown hair. "I turned into a pretty version of you!" I felt a vein throb on my forehead and I glared at him.

"That doesn't look anything like me." I stated.

"That's the point! Your hair is red like a tomato, and nobody likes tomatoes!" Several other boys giggled and joined in.

"No! Her hairs darker than a tomato!"

"Maybe she's a rotten tomato! That explains why she has spots all over her!"

"Well she is a couple of years older than the rest!"

"Her butt's round like a tomato too!" I ball my fists up, trying to contain my anger. But as the jeers continue I feel something snap inside of me.

"You know what else my hair matches?" I asked darkly and there are several "huh"'s. I pause for dramatic effect. And I look up, using my painful chakra to grow fangs and make my eyes turn red. "The blood of my victims." The boy's faces contorted in terror. I took a step toward them and they all screamed bloody murder and ran. A couple of them tripped and crawled away on all fours.

"What's wrong with you boys?" Asked Ino as they all bolted past.

"She's a demon!" Screamed one of them but kept running.

"What do you mean? Who's a dem-eek!" Sakura is cut off as she spots me and let's out a shriek.

"What you too Sa-eep!" Ino then spots me, screams and runs off along with all of the other fangirls and civilians.

Once they're gone, I straighten my back and smirk. The only people who didn't run away are the rookie nine, minus Ino and Sakura. I turn to look at the others who are all staring at me.

"Damn Erin!" Kiba breaks the silence, "that was almost as scary as my mom and that's saying something!" I grin and bow. I spot Sasuke rolling his eyes and I just glare at him.

"That was WAY worse than what my mom's like." Drones Shikamaru, "I feel as if all women are either fangirls or terrifying, what a drag."

"HEY! Don't forget girls like Hinata, girls like her are nice!" Shouts Naruto. Said girl immediately blushes and looks down.

Oh! Perfect! I untie my lavender sweater from my waist and put it on. My hands clamp into a seal and I focus hard. Hinata has a similar body type, has somewhat close to the same height and we have similar face shapes. The most difficult part for me will be making my hair change and making my skin pale.

A burning sensation runs through my body and I spot the blood vessels on by hands becoming black, and noticeable. Naruto, Kiba, and Choji "ooo" and "aww" at the skeptical. While everyone else just stares. The skin on my hands begin to pale and the blood vessels disappears, the transformation is almost done. I glance at Hinata, I haven't done the eyes yet. I add chakra to my eyes and I hope that they become clear.

"How do I look?" I ask and I immediately correct my voice, "h-how about n-now?"

"Your transformation was accurate. But you should work on your level of speed." Shino says helpfully and I nod in agreement.

"Hey Hinata! We should try to trick Iruka-sensei and pretend to be each other for the rest of the day." I suggested, now I notice that Hinata's voice just doesn't sound quite right without the stutter. It's strange, now that my chakra isn't in my body it just feels itchy on my skin. I think I could bear through the rest of the school day. Which is basically just another half hour.

Hinata nervously looks down, "I-I don't think th-that I could a-act like you Erin." She says quietly as she fumbles with her hands.

"O-Oh! I have an idea!" Cries Naruto as he raises his hand while jumping, "we could all turn into Hinata and Iruka-sensei has to figure out who's who!"

"If you can actually pull of the transformation!" Laughs Kiba heartelly.

"Shut up! I totally can!"

It ended up that there were four Hinata's. One of them myself, one Naruto, and one Kiba. When Iruka showed up to check on us he was completely baffled for a moment. Then one "Hinata" enthusiastically explained that he had to guess who was who.

Iruka laughed and pointed at the Hinata, "if that's how it is I'm guessing that you're Naruto."

"Ack! You've got me Sensei!" Giggled Naruto as he transformed into himself.

~0~

It took about fifteen minutes for Iruka to catch Kiba. The only reason why was because he eventually snapped at Naruto for asking if he can borrow Akamaru, I have no idea why.

Now it was the end of class and Iruka was looking between me and the real Hinata skeptically. The real Hinata's face was bright red with embarrassment and mine was a blank mask. I don't know why he hasn't guessed it yet. Maybe I should give him a little hint.

"Wow Iruka-sensei. Can't even tell his two students apart." I drawled.

Iruka snapped his fingers and pointed at me, "Erin." I nod my head and transform into myself, feeling grateful to finally have the itchy chakra off of my skin. Whoever was sitting somewhat near us let out a squeak and moved away. I'm guessing that's because of my little outburst earlier.

Iruka cast them a confused look but didn't ask. "Anyways, I want you all to remember that next week is a survival exercise. You will be taken to the forest in training ground 12 and you must avoid being captured by genin, chunin, and jounin. The jounin will begin searching on the third day of this exercise." Excited whispers began to fill the room as the bell rang, everyone starting moving even though Iruka shouted that he wasn't finished yet. "Don't forget! Pack enough food for the week! Bring kunai, shuriken, ninja wire and everything else!" I walk out of the room and Naruto falls into step beside me.

"Wanna walk home together?" He asks, "we could totally stop by Ichiraku's for some ramen!"

We recently learned that I'm one of Naruto's neighbors. I'm just a couple of apartments down from him and ever since we've walked home together. But I can't do that today. "Sorry Naruto I have to train." The boys face fell, "but we could definitely hang out later." I said, hoping that will cheer him up.

"Oh, ok! See you later Erin!" He waved as he walked away. I turned and walked the other direction. As I recall, Lee was free to train today. Whenever he isn't on a mission and isn't busy we meet up at training ground 20 and we train in taijutsu and basically just physical training. Of course Lee is a lot better than I am.

On the way there I stop at a shop and grab some dango for the both of us. Usually Lee would have already been training for a couple of hours so I assume that he'll be hungry. While he's eating I can explain the survival exercise and ask for advice and how to get ready.

As I continue to walk, I can sense the civilians stares and all gave me a wide berth. I've gotten pretty popular after defending Naruto from that shop owner. Word around here spreads really fast. But I don't care about their immature opinions. I don't need them to be on my side.

I quickly got to the training ground and as I expected Lee was already covered in sweat and was quickly doing push-ups. Damn, I think he's in the hundreds.

"Hey Lee!" I called as I made my way toward him, "I brought some dango." Lee paused and looked up from the ground.

"Dango!? What a treat!" He jumped up like it was nothing and walked over. This guy…

"Here." I handed him some which he quickly demolished. He moved to start doing push-ups again. "Wait! I have a thing coming up next week that I need to tell you about."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, it's a survival exercise and I think I need some advice." I explained to him the entire thing and by the end he was nodding.

"Yes, I believe that I will be partaking in this youthful exercise as well." He says, "tree climbing and water walking would be a useful skill for this." I realize how far that would put me ahead of the rest of the class and enthusiasm runs through me.

"Let's get started then." I said moving towards a tree.

"Yes! After we do some warm ups!" Lee says to stop me.

"Oh." Lee's warm ups suck. They could take from a half hour to an hour and usually I'm too tired to get to the actual training. Lee's pointed out that I could try enhancing my muscles with chakra but I disagreed. It is almost past my pain threshold but I don't tell him that. I just use the "I don't want to do anything you can't do" excuse.

"I will do one hundred push-ups within the time that it takes you to do fifty!" He says as he pumps a fist into the air, "and if I can't I will do two hundred squats." I let out an exhausted sigh. I'm pretty sure that someday he's going to get himself killed with that attitude. I go down into push-up position and Lee copies. "Ready, go!"

I start and quietly count, "one...two...three...four...five...six-"

"One,two,three,four,five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten,eleven,twelve,thirteen-"

"Ten...eleven...twelve...thirteen...fourteen-" this sucks and it's stupid and I'm tired and I don't want to do this and I just wanted to learn how to tree walk.

Lee was done by the time I reached thirty. And he decided to do the squats anyway which he finished when I reached fifty. This really doesn't help with my self confidence.

"All right!" Lee pumped a fist as he looked down at my collapsed form. "Now I will teach you how to cli-" he abruptly stopped talking and looked to his right, clearly listening.

"What is it Lee?" I sit up and look but I can't see anything. Lee wordlessly runs off into the trees. "LEE!" I snapped and got up. Despite my exhaustion I ran after him. I'm actually worried. What if there are enemy shinobi around and they caught him in a genjutsu? He is really weak to stuff like that after all. An image of Itachi Uchiha flashes in my mind and paranoia bubbles in my stomach.

No. He wouldn't show up now. It's too early.

"GO GAI-SENSEI! YOU CAN WIN THIS!" I hear Lee shout and the bushes abruptly give way to a pathway. I can see two adult men walking on their hands. "GOO!" I spot Lee on the edge the road pumping his fist as they passed. I look behind me and there is a finish line decorated with many ribbons and colours. I look back at the men and recognize Gai and a man with silver hair and I immediately know what's happening.

I turn and give Lee the most unimpressed look that I can muster. "Lee, I can't believe you done this." I said flatly.

"BUT LOOK GAI-SENSEI IS ABOUT TO WIN!" He shouted and I cover my ears. I watch as the men slowly reach the finish line and both collapse in exhaustion. "GAI-SENSEI IS THE WINNER!"

"Can we leave now?" I growled grumpily. I just want to start tree climbing.

"You did it Gai-sensei! You broke the tie!" Lee helped Gai stand up. Tears flowing comically from his eyes. A frown of disappointment crosses my face as I see Gai crying as well. Kakashi is still laying on the ground.

Konoha shinobi at their finest.

"Lee, I'll just go back to training and you can come once you're done. Alright?" I turn to leave but I'm stopped when Gai calls my name.

"How is the academy? My youthful friend?" He asked, "what did you do today?"

I turn around and shrug, "it's alright." A proud smirk appeared on my face, "I terrorized some kids today."

A chuckle comes from Gai, "as one does." He then turns and helps Kakashi up. "Have you met my eternal rival Erin-san?"

I blink at the man for a second and he's looking at me skeptically. "No. Sorry, Gai-sensei, I've got to start training!" I turn and abruptly ditch them. I really want to learn how to tree climb by the end of this weekend if that's possible. This exercise is going to be difficult.

~0~

A/N: AAHH it's finally done! I'm probably gonna start doing the once a week updates that I was talking about. I don't want school to start yet! So next week will be the exercise and how well Erin does and stuff.

In this chapter, I wanted to show how an abusive family affected Erin and how it affected her attitude towards people. I also wanted to show a little bit as to why Minami is suspicious of her.

Oh, and here's some people's ages if you guys are confused:

Ages 11-12: rookie 9, Gaara, Suigetsu, Karin.

Ages 13: Rock Lee, Neji, Tenten, Kankuro, Haku (I think)

Ages 14: Erin, Temari.

Ages 15-17: Deidara, Itachi, Kabuto (I think)

Ages 18+: everyone else.

I'm also thinking about giving Erin a summoning animal and I want you guys to vote. Here are my ideas:

-Ninja cats

-Snakes

-Scorpions

-Peacocks

-Chameleons

-(No summoning)

Don't forget to cast your votes! See you!

I love hearing your guys's feedback and answering your questions! So keep on reviewing!


	13. Announcement 1

Announcement:

A/N: Hey everyone this is just about Erin's summoning animal! I'm really sorry but I'm removing ninja cats from the list. I just can't think of how they would fit in the story and I don't think that they would fit with Erin's personality and future fighting style.

Anyway for anyone who's having a difficult time choosing which summoning to vote for here's a summary for each animal:

Snakes- if Erin gets a snake summoning she normally won't summon a snake like what Orochimaru and Anko use. The snakes that she will use will be venomous like vipers, rattlesnakes, and cobras. Even if she doesn't use the same kinds of snakes many people will still pin a lot of red flags on Erin for this summoning.

Scorpions- the scorpion summoning won't help very much in combat but they will teach Erin a lot about poisons. They will also help spy for her. This summoning will also give her an indirect connection to Sasori of the red sand. But people won't be as suspicious because Sasori doesn't summon scorpions.

Peacocks- Erin's peacock summoning would be capable of shooting feathers like senbon needles and they would know somebody's acupuncture points. They would also be skilled with genjutsu.

Chameleons- the chameleons wouldn't be meant for combat although they could cast weak genjutsu. Their main purpose would be for spying for Erin.

Also I wouldn't be mad if you guys vote for no summoning animal.

Here's how the votes are currently going:

-snakes:2

-scorpions:4

-peacocks:2

-chameleons:0

-no summoning:0

I'll post my next chapter as quickly as possible.

Don't forget to vote!


	14. Chapter 13

A/N: hey my loyal readers! I do hope that you're having an amazing day! Anyway, I just can't keep up with all of the views that this story's getting so I'm gonna bump the special chapters up from every 500 views to every 2000 views. Happy reading!

To: SoraLover987142

I would have Erin summon both males and females. The males would be best with genjutsu and the females would be best with the "senbon feathers".

~0~

Chapter 13:

'Today is Monday' I think as I furiously bustle around my apartment. Trying to get ready for this week's exercise. I check my pack once again. Twenty kunai, fifty shuriken, ten food pills, five soldier pills, twenty yards of ninja wire, fifty explosion tags (I'm teaching myself how to make them. A lot of these are bad but I think that the bad ones should just make an even bigger explosion. Hehe), and two changes of clothes. I would have just packed one but Lee made me bring one of the stupid green things that he wears. Right now I'm not wearing my usual attire. I'm still wearing my black ninja pants, now I'm wearing mesh armour underneath a darker green T-shirt. Along with that I got myself a dark grey trench coat similar to what Ibiki has. I'm also wearing bandages along my arms and my ankles.

I turn around, checking my supplies one more time before putting them in various sealing scrolls (these ones I actually bought). I stuff the scrolls into my pockets and fumble with my kunai holster that's strapped to my right leg. It just doesn't feel right carrying weapons with you. Yep, I'm definitely Canadian.

I jump when I hear a loud and obnoxious knock at my door. "Hey Erin! Are you ready to go!?" Naruto's voice comes from the door.

I move to let him in, "have you even had breakfast yet?" I ask when I open the door. The blond looks down and twiddles his fingers.

"Err, no." I let out a sigh and roll my eyes, "I was thinking we could go to Ichiraku's instead." That would explain why he's a full half hour early.

I pause to think. Ramen doesn't seem like the best choice right before this next week. Well, if we don't get caught. We could get caught today if we're that bad. Actually I'm not even sure if it's a week. I think that we're just supposed to keep avoiding being captured until we are captured and brought back. Iruka probably said a week because he assumed that we would all be brought back before then. Maybe if I don't get caught I could just stick around for a month or two. That would be funny.

I shrug. Screw it. "Sure, let's go." Naruto immediately grinned and ran out the door, shouting for me to follow him. I roll my eyes and run after him. Why are we even running?

We quickly made it to the ramen shop. Naruto didn't stop running so he just jumped and landed perfectly on the chair in a well practiced manner. I stopped in front of my chair and climbed on.

"One miso ramen please!" Said Naruto cheerfully.

"Coming right up, Naruto!" The shopkeeper answered, "and for you, young lady?"

"Ditto." I said simply and I fumbled with my kunai holster again. He nods and turns to do his work.

"This week I'm gonna make it to the very end!" Exclaims Naruto excitedly and he waves his arms expressively. "And I'm gonna beat Sasuke! Believe it! What about you Erin?"

I shrug, "I guess that I'll try my best." I unconsciously take out a kunai and trace my fingers along it. "But Naruto, what's your plan?"

He gives me a blank look, "huh?"

"How are you going to make it to the end of the week?"

"Oh," he said, "I haven't thought about it." He looked down at his hands, "what's your plan?" He asked quietly.

A smirk appears on my lips. "A lot of traps. Most of them involving explosive tags." I laugh at Naruto's shocked expression.

"B-But what if you hurt someone?" He asks nervously. And jumps when a bowel of ramen is placed in front of him. One is placed in front of me and I reach for some chopsticks.

"Naruto, in real life you'd want to be hurting the enemy that's after you." I explained. Honestly, I don't really care if I hurt someone or not. If they're going to train us to be child soldiers, we should act like them. "Besides, I think it would be good training for everyone so they can learn and or practice detecting traps." With that I begin eating, leaving Naruto with a thoughtful look on his face as he ate as well.

Suddenly I realize something. About ten minutes ago I was thinking about how strange it felt to be carrying weapons. Now I'm thinking about how much I don't care whether or not I hurt somebody. 'Is there something wrong with me?' I pause and look over at Naruto who still managed to keep a thoughtful expression as he was scarfing down food. He notices me looking and stops to grins at me. 'Damn, I don't think I deserve him as a friend.' My thoughts are interrupted by a shout.

"Hey Naruto! Erin!" The voice is followed by a bark. I turn around to spot Kiba, Akamaru in tow with a woman and three dogs following her. Kiba's waving and jogging towards us. "What're you guys doing?" He asks when he reaches us.

"Eating breakfast." I said flatly and promptly finished off my food. Kiba facepalms and furiously gestures to the large bowls.

"Seriously you guys!?" He asked, "if you eat stuff like that you aren't gonna make it very far."

"I WILL EAT AS MUCH RAMEN AS I WANT TO AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!" Snapped Naruto as he ordered another bowl.

"And… As always Erin doesn't care." Said Kiba and Akamaru let out a whine.

"Meh." I said while shrugging. "I could live off of a diet of ramen and I would still beat you Kiba. And that's all that matters." Kiba gapes at me and Naruto chokes on his ramen. It takes me a moment to realize how savage I was right there and I choke and clutch my sides. Trying to hold back my laughter.

Three others laugh for me. The shopkeeper, his daughter, and the woman who had been trailing behind Kiba.

"WEHAVENTEVENSPARREDBEFOREYOUDONTKNOWIFYOUCANBEATME!" Yelled Kiba while Akamaru barked a loud challenge.

I barely managed to hold back my laughing and hop off of my stool. "Want to walk together? Hurry up Naruto!" Said boy furiously finished eating and we both payed for our food.

As we walked I can't help but notice the woman and her three dogs seemed to be watching me very closely. After about ten minutes she finally said something, "very nice of you to introduce me to your friends Kiba." She said sarcastically. I think I like her.

"I can't believe we're acting like this is completely normal after what you said Erin!" Kiba snapped, "oh, and this is my older sister Hana." He gestured sourly to the older woman.

"Hey," I gave a small waving motion and turned back to Kiba, "but Kiba, doesn't it happen to you all of the time?" Damn, I'm on a roll. This time everyone except for Kiba starts laughing. Including Akamaru.

"I like your friend!" Laughed Hana, though after a couple of seconds she stopped and examined me skeptically. "She's even prettier than you said she was." My eyes widen and I feel my face turn bright red.

"HANA!" Shouted Kiba at the top of his lungs, his face turning red as well, "that's not funny!" He then covered his face with his hands and ran off. Hana, who appears to not have noticed continues.

"When Kiba said that you were pretty, I was expecting the usual baby face." She said and she stood uncomfortably close, "but with you, it's like a different unique kind of pretty. It's more like a womanly pretty than a girl pretty. And you look so exotic with your dark red hair and your spots! Oh, and your eyes." She observed and I suddenly feel like covering my own face and running off.

"Heysorrybutifwedonthurryweregoingtobelateforclasssobye!" I grab Naruto's hand and make an effort to power walk away. After we escape I slow down and let out an exhausted sigh.

Naruto cast me a confused look and eventually spoke, "wow Erin, you just went from yourself to Hinata real quick." He said, "I didn't know that getting compliments could freak you out so much." I lifted my arms above my head.

"Mah, I guess you're right I kind of freaked out there." Honestly, I had absolutely no idea how to handle that situation. Receiving compliments especially from a stranger felt weird. I can handle insults just fine though. "Anyway, we should probably actually hurry before we're late."

"Yep!" We then began jogging in the direction of the academy.

~0~

After we made it to the academy, Iruka called the class together and lead us to the training grounds. When we got there we were met with the Hokage along with about thirty genin and chunin.

I look around and immediately spot Lee and his team. I think he was trying to catch my eye due to the fact that he was furiously waving both of his arms. A faint smile appears on my lips and give a slight wave. The boy grins and gives me a thumbs up. 'What a little weirdo' I thought amused. I glance up when the Hokage begins speaking.

"Welcome to you Academy students! I may as well begin explaining this training exercise." He said as he smiled down at the class, I allow an enormous yawn. "You will avoid being captured in these woods for as long as possible. You will be given a ten minute head start to get into the woods before the genin and the chunin begin looking for you. There should be many sources of food and there are a few places for water…"

I glance around at my peers, the fangirls and civilians have made a wide circle around me and they all immediately drop their gaze when I make eye contact with them. I like this power. I look up towards the chunin and the special jonin standing behind the Hokage. I can spot a few staring at me and a few are whispering. There is a certain burgundy haired special jonin who I spot staring and smirks at me. Slightly freaked out, I turn my attention back to lord third.

"-if you make it to the third day jonin and special jonin alike will be sent out to search for you. They will have medical kits just in case something happened to you. But for the majority of the time they will be hunting for you and you must do your best to avoid capture." He continued to ramble on and I tuned the majority of the explanation. Until he says a few things that I didn't know yet. "You are permitted to set as many traps as you want and you may sabotage your fellow classmates." Wait what? My eyes drifted towards Sasuke and we made eye contact. He raised a brow and I narrowed my eyes. It is on. This unspoken rivalry is amusing.

"Alright everyone! Form into a line!" I jump when Iruka speaks and I realize that the old man had finished explaining everything. "Ready, go!" Oh my god I wasn't ready for that. I stumble for a moment before running for the trees. Alright, it's time to put my training to good use.

Once I'm out of the open, I can still see my fellow classmates, but they shouldn't be a problem. Painful chakra moves from my chest, to my legs to the bottoms of my feet. I haven't perfected tree walking but I can work with what I have now. I run towards a thick tree and rapidly kick my feet into the bark. My chakra cuts through it like butter, creating perfect footholds for me to climb up. I'm aware of several of my classmates stopping to gawk at my work but I ignore them. I only have less than ten minutes to put as much space between myself and my hunters as possible.

Once I reach a large enough branch to stand on I glance down at the ground. I can spot each and every one of my classmates running through the trees. Not very much cover, I guess that the trees are going to be my home for the next week. But there are a lot of clearings so this forest is perfect for my explosive traps.

Alright, here comes the difficult part. I set my sights on the closest branch and flex my legs. I run a couple of steps to build momentum and jump. "-oof!" I make it but just barely. I rap my arms around the branch and pull myself up.

'It's alright, I just need to get into the flow of it' I jump to the next branch. Then the next. Then the next. After a few minutes I check my watch. I only have three more minutes.

I jump down to the ground and pull out some ninja wire. Time to set my first trap. I set the ninja wire as an unnoticeable trip wire attached to one of my faulty seals. I carefully cover the trap with leaves before running off. I set more wires as much as possible. Buy now I can hear shouts of surprise and complaint. The genin and chunin are running throughout the forest now.

I move as fast as I can throughout the trees. The only time I stop is when I hear an enormous explosion. I slowly turn around and see the distinct bright purple flames of a faulty seal bursting from the trees. I spot a pink haired girl screaming as she flew from the blast and a grin appears in my face. I watch as a man in a chunin vest barely manages to catch when she almost hits the ground.

Let the hunger games begin. And may the odds be ever in your favour.

~0~

A/N: there's the first chapter for this exciting exercise! Hehe, let's see what happens.

Here's how the votes are going:

Snakes-2

Scorpions-4

Peacocks-5

Chameleons-0

No summoning-0

Peacocks are in the lead! Woot!


	15. Chapter 14

A/N:

To:

How she ended up in Konoha will remain a mystery for now. Also yes, she will see Suigetsu again but not for a little while.

~0~

Chapter: 14:

After I finish watching the fireworks I continue on my way with a wide grin on my face. I never knew that an explosion could be so…satisfying. As I run I continue to set more and more traps and only pause to watch the glory of them exploding. Of course so far only my classmates have hit them but I'm still so proud of it.

Suddenly I stop in my tracks and look around. I can sense three chakra signatures and one of them is Lee. Normally I can sense people from about thirty feet away so they should be in my line of vision. It takes me a few seconds but I spot it. Green spandex and a lot of shouting. Surprisingly they aren't using the trees to travel. Well it makes some sense since normally academy students can't climb trees the way myself and higher ninjas can. Despite this I press myself against the tree trunk, hoping that they don't spot me despite the fact that they're not looking up at all.

"See anything Neji?" Asked Tenten as she glanced around the clearing. "I think that the ninjas are running out of academy students to catch." I frown. People were caught that quickly and easily?

"No, not currently-" he suddenly looks directly at me and I stiffen. "Wait! There's Erin!" I get ready to run but I stop when Lee shouts as he runs towards the tree.

"There you are!" He's about to set off one of my traps and I'm too close to it.

"Lee wait!" Neji and I yell simultaneously just as he steps directly on the ninja wire.

I rapidly try to jump to the next tree to put distance between myself and the explosion. But it hits me mid jump and rockets me forward and I hit the ground hard. I look around and spot dark green flames in the clearing that I was just in. I lay there winded for a moment before gasping for breath and rolling onto my side as I attempt to get up. So that's what it felt like to be hit by one of my explosives. I manage to sit up and now I'm slowly standing up. I glance around and spot Tenten. It looks like she's taking beer time after the blow.

"Erin, y-you're the one who's been setting up the explosives?" She wheezes from her spot.

"Yeah." I grab onto the tree for support and take a careful step. I watched as Tenten slowly and shakily raised her arm in a thumbs up.

"You better hurry. Lee and Neji probably aren't that far off." I nod and, having mostly recovered. Kick my feet into the wood as I climb back up the tree. When I reached the top I waved down at the girl and jump to the next tree. I continue tree jumping for who knows how long and eventually I see the sun beginning to dip down.

I drop down to solid ground and collapse. I've spent literally the entire day jumping from tree to tree. I glance around, I haven't been hearing and or seeing very many explosions lately. I guess that my classmates are being caught faster than everyone expected. That might be partially my fault though.

I force myself up. I should probably find something to eat. I turn around, I think I can hear running water. Dragging my feet, I make my way over. Once I see the water I have to resist the urge to run forward and gulp down water. People are supposed to bowl or filter any water that doesn't come from a tap. I pull out my water bottle which has a built in filter inside. Scooping the bottle into the water I set it down to wait impatiently for it to be ready to drink.

As I waited I fiddled with one of my kunai and glance around my special spot. I can see a few edible plants in the clearing but not enough for legit sustenance. I let out a sigh. I really don't want to have food pills to live off of while I'm out here. My prayers are almost immediately answered when I hear a splash come from the river. I jump up and look down.

Yes! Score! I see three fish making their way upstream. But the problem is how do I get them. The first thought that comes to mind would be to throw and pierce through them with my kunai. That wouldn't work though unless they were somehow in midair…

"I can't believe that you brought instant ramen out here." I jump when I hear a familiar drawl and I realize that I can sense two chakra signatures coming this way. I move behind the nearest tree and listen. Ok, one of them is Naruto. No one can mistake that ray of sunshine chakra. Then I guess the other one is Shikamaru.

"Hey, it's not like you brought anything but food pills! Ick!" I smirk and step out from behind the tree.

"Hey." Both boys jump two feet in the air and stare at me.

"...Erin?" Shikamaru asks in surprise, "I couldn't even sense you." I shrug and simply turn around and point towards the water.

"I need some help. There are three fish swimming upstream and I can't get at them." Naruto and Shikamaru look down at the water as they searched for the fish. "I was thinking maybe you guys could go into the water and make them jump up so I can hit them with my kunai. If we get this right there could be one fish for each of us. But we've got to hurry, it's getting dark."

"Alright!" Naruto jumps in without a second thought and fully clothed. His eyes furiously search the water, "where are they?" I chuckle and point just ahead of him.

"Right there but don't go yet. Wait form Shikamaru." Said boy lets out a groan and prepares to follow after Naruto.

"I can't believe I'm doing this for some stupid fish. What a drag." He slowly waded into the water and loudly complained about how cold it was.

"Shikamaru, go to Naruto's right to make sure the fish don't just swim around you guys." I pointed to where I wanted him to go and he complied. "Alright, on my mark." I pull three kunai out of my holster and sink into a stance. "Now!"

The two boys moved forward at the fish which immediately reacted by jumping into the air. I wait until they reach their peak and throw my kunai. Two of the fish are hit in the middle while the third is hit at the tip of it's tail. The fish falls back into the water and almost gets away but it's grabbed by Shikamaru. The boy holds up the flopping fish a foot away.

"Ok, now what?" He asks.

"Bring the fish over here." I said and gestured for them to come back out of the water.

"Alright! Let's start a fire so we can EAT!" Cries Naruto as he pumps a fist in the air. I realize something and frown.

"If we start a fire won't that give away our position?" I ask uncertainly. Ever since that first explosion the hunger games has been at the back of my mind.

"Nah, I think we're good. It seems like everyone's settling down for the night." Shikamaru waved the question off. I shrug and move around the clearing in search of firewood. I'm quickly followed by Naruto while Shikamaru takes care of preparing the fish because apparently his mom taught him how before this trip. (What a drag).

Once we've gathered enough firewood I show Naruto how to set up a campfire. When that's done we take the fish that Shikamaru has prepared and wait for them to cook.

"Hey Shikamaru, do you know how many other students are left?" I ask to break the silence.

Shikamaru looks up from the fire, "I can't be sure. There's us three, I think that Sasuke is too good to be caught already. Same with Shino. I'm pretty sure that In-" He's abruptly cut off by a loud bang and I turn to look and see blood red flames exploding over the treetops. I glance to the right and spot a blond shrieking as she flies through the air. Taken down just like Sakura. "Never mind."

I stand up and shout in excitement. "Yes!" I pump both of my fists into the air. Once I'm done I sit back down and look at the fire. "It looks like my fish is done." I reach forward and grip the stick that pierced through it and blow as I wait for it to cool off. I glance at the two boys and realize they're both giving me strange looks. "What?"

Shikamaru face palms while Naruto just gapes, "why is it that the only times that you seem happy are when other people are suffering?" I shrug and silently take a bite of my fish. It tastes good after a long day of running.

"Erin, did you make those traps?" I nod my head at Naruto's question, "that's so… Awesome! Could you show me how to make them!?" Both Shikamaru and I jump at his loud tone. I take a moment to think about his question and I shake my head. Naruto's face fell, "why not?" He asked sadly.

"Because, I work with seals. When it comes to sealing techniques each and every person has their own way." This is true. In my faulty seals I've mixed in English and zen tangle. I honestly don't think of Naruto as the artsy type, I'm not even sure if he could draw a decent circle. "So if you want to learn how to make an explosive note then you'll have to figure out how to do it in your own way." The boy nodded in understanding with a thoughtful look on his face.

"You know, one of those explosions is the reason why Choji's out." I turn to see Shikamaru's utterly unimpressed face.

"Oops." I shrug as if I'm completely helpless to the situation and take another bite of my fish. Shikamaru frowns at me before taking a bite of his own fish on a stick. "Man, our classmates are gonna hate me after this." I chuckle as I watch the smoke rise from the last explosion.

~0~

I'm awoken by yet another explosion. 'HOLY SH-' I shout in English as I fall out of the tree that I had been sleeping in and lay there winded for a minute. I look around and spot the two boys (who had decided to sleep on the ground because they can't tree climb) blinking in confusion. "That was a lot closer than I like. I think that it's time to get up." I stated once I realize that I can see the sun peeking over the horizon.

Shikamaru groans and sits up, "well, I guess it's time for me to quit then." He drones and stands up. Causing me to frown.

"What do you mean? You could keep going." I ask. I don't think Naruto's paying attention. The boy still payed on the ground half asleep.

"Mah, I wanted to quit from the very beginning but my mom said that she wanted me to at least last until the second day." He moved and lifted his backpack onto his shoulder, "besides this whole thing is a total drag. And I could probably by you guys a little bit of time." I let out a sigh and wave as he lazily walks off.

Once he's disappeared through the trees I tiredly get up and move to pick up my own backpack. "Hey…where's Shikamaru?" I turn to see Naruto sitting up and scratching the back of his head and I face palm.

"He decided to quit." I answer, I'm hoping to keep this conversation short and sweet. I need to get going.

"What? Why?" I let out a frustrated sigh and wave him off.

"I don't know. He just did." I turn around and kick my feet into the tree with my chakra as I climb up. "Listen Naruto, I'll meet you back here tonight and maybe we can catch some more fish." I would bring Naruto with me, but he'd just slow me down.

"O-Ok." Is the only thing I hear as I jump forward to the next tree. I hope that Naruto gets up fast enough not to just get caught. I believe that he can make it through another day if he takes it seriously. I've seen him manage to avoid the villages chunin before.

As I move I start the same ritual as yesterday. Every so often I stop to make a trap and every so often I pause to watch one go off. After yesterday there are a lot less explosions. I guess Shikamaru's right.

Eventually I stop when I sense a chakra signature about thirty feet ahead. 'That's weird. I thought that the shinobi hadn't gotten this far into the woods.' I thought and I jumped forward by a couple of trees. I smirk when I spot dark hair and a blue T-shirt. It's Sasuke.

I move forward so that I'm basically right above him and spot the way that I'll initiate my attack. I prepare to switch spots with the log directly beside him-

"Fire release: great fireball jutsu!" Oh no. I whip around to see an enormous ball of flames coming at me. I curse loudly and jump to another tree. Once the smoke clears, Sasuke jumps down into the clearing and looks up at me. "You fell for my trap."

I glare at the twelve year old. He's a lot better than I thought, he used a clone to trick me into getting close and waited for an opening. Sneaky bastard. "Yes. That is true." I agree irritably, "but that isn't going to happen again." I grab one of the kunai in my holster and slap one of my faulty explosive tags onto it. I'm not in the mood for loosing.

I aim for the boys feet and throw. I let out an irritated "tch" when Sasuke jumps backwards just in time. He just so happens to land on the same tree branch as me and aims a punch at me. I redirect the blow in a well practiced manner so that I he stumbles. I'm behind him now and use a powerful spinning hook kick to knock him off of the tree (yes, these tree branches are thick enough to have a legit fight on). Except my kick doesn't work because Sasuke dodges. I jump backwards when he lashes out with his own kick but he doesn't give me a chance to retaliate because he just continues attacking. I block and duck and dodge. I'm starting to get overwhelmed.

'He's too fast for me.' He doesn't even give me enough time to think. I suddenly stop and barely manage to grasp his fist before it hits me.

"We need to finish this later. Someone's coming." I say as I sense three adult chakras coming this way. My explosion must have given us away. "Oh no…" Both of us drop our fists and I turn to spot three chunin jumping towards us. Without another word both of us drop in opposite directions.

"You two go after that one. I'll go after the girl." Said one of the chunin and I feel anger flare in me. Is he assuming that I'm weaker? I glance back and I see him quickly catching up.

'Well, I'm going to show him exactly how "weak" I am.' I continue jumping and eventually sense him only a few feet behind me.

"Why don't you just give up? You're basically out." I hear him say and I turn around and reach into my holster mid jump. Man, he isn't even reacting. I don't even know how you can underestimate someone this much. Welp, he's about to find out that I'm the one who's been setting up the explosive tags.

"Yeah, about that…" I quote and throw the kunai which I had prepared earlier. The kunai hits it's mark right on the tree branch that the chunin was just landing on and the area is abruptly filled with navy blue flames.

The chunin lets out a shocked yell and is blasted backwards. I smirk, this is my chance to disappear. I hop to a random tree and completely rid my body of the chakra I'd been using to keep going. I let out a sigh as I release the pain.

I then silently wait for the cursing man to leave in search of me before continuing on my merry way.

~0~

A/N: here's how the vote's going! Chameleons are out!

Snakes:3

Scorpions:5

Peacocks:7

No summoning:0

Don't forget to vote!


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

I hop down from my perch in the trees once I spot Naruto walk into the clearing. "Hey, you made it." I greet as I walk forward. I look over the boy for a second and notice that he's covered in dust. "How was your day?"

Naruto immediately threw his hands up in exasperation and complained, "Kiba tried to get me out! And it's getting way harder to avoid the ninja around here!" He tiredly collapsed onto the ground.

I nodded in agreement and sat beside him, "I ran into Sasuke and our fight gave away our position." With my pause I smirk, "but I took care of it." Naruto looked up and looked slightly concerned. "So Naruto, how many of those things of instant ramen did you bring?" I asked, I helped him yesterday. It wouldn't hurt him too much to help me out today.

"Ten." Naruto sat up and grinned at me, "do you just want to eat some of those today?"

I shrug, "sure, I have a craving." I unseal one of my storage scrolls to bring out a small pot and grab my filtered water bottle. "We just have to make a fire."

We're soon silently eating ramen from the small cups that they're cooked in. "So…" I look up when Naruto breaks the silence, "you ran into Sasuke huh?"

I nodded before answering answering with a single "hn,". Naruto looked nervous about what he was about to say. I gave him a questioning look and I paused in eating.

"...why do you hate him so much?" What? How have I shown that I dislike him in any way? I blinked at Naruto in confusion and the boy continues, "I've seen the way you look at him. It's like a less noticeable version of how the civilians look at you and me. Well?" I frown at him and think hard on my answer. When I think about it I do in fact strongly dislike him. Why did Naruto feel the need to ask me this? He knows that I don't like sharing personal things.

"Well…" I trail off, not knowing what to say, "I'd prefer not to say. And don't you dislike him too?" I ended up answering his question with another question. Take that.

The boy bristled, "hey! At least you know why I don't like him!" He then pointed at me, "and this is about you! And stop trying to change the subject. Iruka-sensei said that it's bad to "suppress your emotions" and that's what Sasuke does. And you've seen what HE'S like." I let out a sigh and look down. Well played Naruto, well played.

I think through my words carefully. This is definitely something that I would tell Conner. But he isn't here. I'm just debating on how willing I am to tell him my personal thoughts. I take a deep breath and speak. "He just acts like he's the only one who has to deal with pain." I said quietly. Naruto looked like he was confused, "more than one person in this world has to deal with loss. He acts like he's some special snowflake that's better than anyone else." The boy frowned at me in deep thought.

"You know what happened to Sasuke's family right?"

"Yeah I do. I'm just saying that other people have gone through things like that. Maybe even some worse." I growl and feel my pent up anger welling up inside of me. Frustrated at the fact that I was born into a family that didn't want me. Frustrated at the fact that I've been sent into this stupid world away from the one person that truly cares about me and that I care truly care about. Frustrated that I'm slowly losing my culture and it feels like I can't do anything about it. Frustrated at the fact that I can feel myself losing my moral compass.

Frustrated with my life.

Naruto looks shocked at my tone and slightly shifts away. This is my cue to calm down. Boy, Sasuke just brings out the best in me doesn't he? I frown in realization.

'How was Naruto able to read me?' He must be really good if he managed to catch me. I look at him skeptically while he stares.

"I-I think that we should get some sleep." Naruto said and he scarfed down the rest of his food. Wow did I freak him out that much? Well, normally I don't have very much emotion in my voice so that sudden change might have shocked him.

"Alright."

I'm up for a few more minutes before I decide to sleep on the ground. I am most certainly not sleeping in the trees after what happened this morning.

~0~

"WAKE UP MAGGOT!" I blink my eyes open in confusion as somebody screams in my face. It's still at least midnight. Why is there somebody screaming in my face. I feel a flash of irritation and I look up at the loser who did it.

I yell in surprise when I see a large snake and I furiously crawl away until my back's against a tree. Oh my god it's coming closer. That's when I hear the loud, cruel laughter and my momentary fear dissipates into annoyance. "That was hilarious!" Shouted a particular burgundy haired special jonin.

I shoot Anko Mitarashi an unimpressed look as her summoning disappears with a puff of smoke. "I thought that we were safe at night time." I said flatly as I stand and dust myself off.

"Well kiddo, you need to learn that SHINOBI. DONT. SLEEP." She then frowns with a thoughtful expression, "actually we do. But that isn't the point! You didn't even sense me." Ok, I guess her chakra signature should have woken me up. I mentally curse at myself for not being able to do something so simple.

"Where's Naruto?" I ask when I don't see the young blond. Other than Anko and I, the clearing seems to be completely empty.

Anko chuckles and stuffs her hands into her pockets, "oh, we already took care of him." Wow that sounds awfully suspicious. "Just kidding, we've already taken him back and I thought that you could use your "beauty sleep"." What? I frown at her in slight confusion.

Anko laughs again, "oh, I also just thought I would give you one more chance." I don't get it, "I'll give you a five minute head start while you run. Threetwoonego!"

"Wha…?" Anko taps her wrist as if she was wearing a watch. "Oh." I get the cue and jump. Kicking my feet into the trees as I go up. Once I'm at one of the branches I glance down one more time at Anko and speed off.

Five minutes isn't very long to get away and it looks like we're being taken a lot more seriously. I swerve as I barely manage to avoid a tripwire. Well, we are dealing with jonin now. They aren't going to coddle us like the others and they shouldn't. Actually, if I'm not caught right now, they might be going pretty easy on me. Even if Anko is giving me a five minute head start shouldn't there be other jonin around? I hear a familiar yipping and I pause on a tree to look.

I immediately start laughing when I spot Kiba hanging by ninja wire in the trees and Akamaru barking at him from the ground.

"Oh muffin." I jump slightly closer but not too close two get a better look at Kiba in his glorious state. "Did somebody get stuck?"

"Sh-Shut up!" The boy spins in midair and tries to swipe at me even though I'm not even close to his reach.

"How'd you even get caught? I thought that you were SUCH a good ninja?" I ask sarcastically as Kiba continues to spin.

The boy glared at me whenever he had the chance and I laughed a little bit more. "For your information, this was here when I woke up." He complained. Now I understand why I haven't run into any jonin other than Anko. They're just being really lazy.

"Well-" I'm interrupted when a loud shout rings through the forest.

"TIMES UP KID!" Oh no. I completely forgot about how I'm supposed to be running. Without another word to Kiba, I jump off.

~0~

I'm pretty sure that it takes less than two minutes for Anko to catch up with me. When I sense her chakra, I give up on running and jump to the ground. I then move behind a tree and rid my body of the chakra that I was using to keep going moments before. I draw in a breath as Anko stops in the same clearing that I had landed in.

"Where did she go?" I hear her mutter quietly to herself. I can get her confusion, if she was using my chakra signature to track me I may or may not have basically disappeared off of the map. I'm impressed that she can even track me while I'm using my chakra because I use the least amount possible because I find it painful.

I slowly take a step forward with the intention to sneak away but I suddenly feel something sharp and painful wrap around my foot and pull me upwards. I let out a shout and dangle for a moment before jumping into action when I see Anko smirking at me. I spot the nearest log, feel the correct amount of chakra seep into me, and switch. Once I land my muscles tense as I prepare to make a run for it.

"Ninja art: striking twin shadow snakes!"

"Ack!" I reach for a kunai with an explosive attached but before I can throw it I'm promptly made demobilized by two large snakes.

"Hah! I got you!" Anko says in triumph and she takes a step forward to confiscate my kunai. "And you must be the one setting up explosive traps." She looks over the tag.

I try to move but the snake's grip tightens. I feel my breath quicken and a wave of panic seep through me and I try harder to move. Look, I don't have a problem with snakes. Snakes are awesome. It's just that I can't move. This feeling of helplessness reminds me too much of that time… Right before I was dragged into this world. I feel my hands starting to shake.

I try to take a deep breath and carefully keep my voice calm. "Alright. You caught me can you get them to let go?" I ask. Anko, who's still distracted by my explosive note disperses the summoning with a wave of her hand. "Thank you." I let out a small sigh of relief but I can tell that it will take a few more minutes for all of my panic to disappear.

"Follow me." Anko said simply before promptly jumping into the trees. I quickly climb up to a branch and follow. It takes me a few moments to catch up and even then Anko has to slow down to my speed. "So, did you make those explosive notes?" The older women asks after a few minutes.

Why would she want to know? "Yeah." I answer monotonously. I currently just wish that we could get out of the training grounds. So that I can go home.

Anko hmm's thoughtfully as she jumps. It's at that moment that I realize something. Anko is jumping with her arms splayed behind her. "Pft," I cover my mouth and hope that she didn't notice. She did.

"What?" She asks and looks at me. I shake my head furiously and jump slightly faster. She looks slightly irritated and asks again, "what is it?"

I can't hold it back anymore and burst into laughter, "it's just- the way you're holding your arms- I can't." The jonin frowns at me in confusion but simply shakes her head.

~0~

After that we reach the end of the training grounds fairly quickly. I quickly spot a few tents and a small fire.

"This way, kid." Anko directs me to a waiting chunin who I quickly recognize as Iruka. The man had his usual concerned look as we got closer.

"Oh, hey Erin-san!" He says cheerfully once we stop in front of him.

'Ola,' I greeted, earning a confused look from both adults. I release the chakra that I had been using to tree jump and drop to one of my knees in exhaustion.

"Are you alright!?" Iruka's at my side in a matter of seconds and helping to hold me up.

"She was fine until we got here!" Says Anko in clear confusion. And she drops to help.

"Mah, I'm fine. I'm just- really tired." I stand, only accepting a little help from my elders.

"Well, okay. Just so you know you have the rest of the week off to unpack and rest. So use it wisely." I slightly nod my head to acknowledge his words and take a step to leave.

A hand clamps on my shoulder and I turn to look in surprise. "Whoa there kiddo! You don't think that you can make it all the way home on your own do you!?" The burgundy haired jonin smirks at me and I blink at her.

I shrug and answer, "meh, thought I'd take my chances." Anko just laughs at me and walks with me, letting me lean on her shoulder.

"You're just a scream kid."

"Let's just go quickly. I want to shower and get to bed as quickly as possible."

~0~

A/N: hey everyone! Here are the votes are going!

Snakes:5

Scorpions:6

Peacocks:8

No summoning:0

Don't forget to cast your votes!


	17. Chapter 16

A/N: look guys! It's another update! I'm just in a super creative mood this week! Anyway, here's chapter 16!

~0~

Chapter 16:

I groan and sit up in bed. I glance at the clock. 1:30pm. Well that's the longest I've ever slept in. Ok, I should probably get up. I swing my legs off of the bed and ignore my screaming muscles as I step onto the cold wooden floor. I get dressed quickly into my casual clothes. Now black leggings my grey tanktop and my light purple sweater tied around my waste. I let out a yawn as I ignore the unpacked bag sitting beside my bed and simply grab my small duffle bag that I keep my art supplies in (or you could call it the stuff that I use to make my explosive notes). On the way out I grab some cash. I have a craving for dango even if it's my breakfast.

~0~

I silently walk through the busy streets of Konoha. Looking at the shops as I pass by. This place is really peaceful. Or at least it looks that way on the outside. I'm half aware of civilians and shinobi staring at me as I walk past. Even those who haven't heard of me must think I look strange. Basically everything about me looks foreign to them. Even if I have pale skin like them it's still dotted with freckles.

I let out another yawn as I walk into the dango shop. I quickly order three sticks and wait. As I wait I silently observe the other customers. About half of the people here are shinobi. It's laughable how easy it is to tell who's a shinobi and who's a civilian. You just have to count how many times somebody glances within one minute. Civilians are completely oblivious but I've lost count on how many times I've seen this one guy…

"Excuse me, are you in line?" I jump when somebody speaks behind me. Jeeze, I bet that guy's a ninja. Civilians usually aren't that light on their feet.

"No. I'm just waiting for my order." I turn to glance at the person who spoke and freeze when I see somebody who has silver hair, glasses and a pony tail. Yeah you guessed it. It's Kabuto Yakushi. "U-Umm, sorry." I step out of his way and mentally curse myself for stuttering. I can't let him know that I know that he works for Orochimaru. I also mentally curse myself for not paying attention to the chakra signatures around me. I've gotten to the point where I can sort of feel people's personalities based on their chakra. And that's pretty awesome.

"It's fine!" Kabuto answers cheerfully and moves ahead. His chakra is fairly interesting the outside seems warm and cheerful but it isn't that difficult to find the cold and dangerous "inner chakra".

Instead of standing and waiting awkwardly beside Kabuto, I decide to build a social wall. I sit at one of the table just meant for one and pull out a book on seals. I bury my nose into the book. This is the universal signal for other people to go away. Well, except for smart people (*cough*Kabuto*cough*). Smart people apparently are very interested when someone younger then them is interested in learning. Or that might just be his excuse.

"Sealing huh?" I jump once again and turn to see the creep looking over my shoulder. "I heard that it's a very difficult profession because there aren't very many studies on it." He observed with a thoughtful look.

At this point I'm just hoping for my dango to be ready so that I have an excuse to leave. "Yeah." I shrug and look back down (being careful to show how uninterested I am). "It's because everyone has their own way of sealing arts." I don't want to seem THAT antisocial.

I couldn't see but I could tell that the older teen was raising his eyebrows. "That's a very interesting perspective from an academy student." I frown and a feeling of paranoia creep into my stomach. How did he know that I was academy level? I turn to look at him in slight confusion.

Alright two can play at this game. "Well what ranking are you? You seem to know a lot." I said. Allowing my suspicion to go into my words.

Kabuto awkwardly laughs and scratches the back of his head. "Genin." Bullshit. "I guess I'm one to talk, hmm?" It looks like he's about to say something else but is interrupted by the lady at the front.

"Excuse me, your order's ready!" I feel like I could have kissed her. Bless her soul.

"Hn." I hurriedly stand and grab the small package which carries my "breakfast".

"I guess I'll see you around then!" Says Kabuto as he gives a slight wave. I give him a slight nod to make sure that I don't seem too unfriendly as I walk out of the door.

I don't know if I just dodged a bullet or if I got myself into far more trouble.

~0~

I silently make walk as I try to find a perfect hideaway. I want to go somewhere where I can just think and not worry about being interrupted. I glance to the side and see a training ground. No, too public. I spot a small park. Too public. I walk and walk. Does this village not have a single hideaway that isn't taken? I stop in my tracks when I realize what's in front of me. I glance around but it suddenly seems like it's a ghost town.

The entrance to the Uchiha District.

I look around one last time before I take a step forward. Nobody should bother me if I'm in here. Except for maybe Sasuke, but this place might bring too many memories for him. As I walk through the district a strange feeling sets over me. This place looks completely normal except for maybe a blood stain or two. Itachi must have been really skilled. He's almost definitely stronger now. What am I going to do about him? What am I going to do about everything that's going to happen? I haven't really thought about that yet. I don't even know if I should do anything. After all I only know what happens up until Lee fights Kimimaru. And I don't even know who wins that one. If I decide to intervene in the plot what if I make a big mistake? But I'm pretty sure that I'm already stuck in the plot because I've met the rookie nine, the sand siblings, Orochimaru's men have already tried to kidnap me once. And to add to all of that I think I've built myself a prodigy status. I let out a long sigh. If only Conner was here. He knows the whole plot and he would make the right choices.

I stop in front of a wall. Not just a wall, THE wall. One of the Uchiha fans has a large crack through the middle. I turn to look to the left, that must have been Sasuke's house. I turn my attention back to the wall. I wonder how much power behind that throw there was to make such a deep crack? My hand twitches towards the pocket where I keep my emergency kunai but I stop myself. It's probably disrespectful that I'm here and not an Uchiha in the first place. I'll have to test somewhere else some other time.

I move along and look as I walk around. Eventually I reach the end of the Uchiha district and it gives way to abandoned forests and training grounds. This seems like the perfect place to be if I want to be alone. I walk and plop down once I reach a small clearing filled with targets. Some are behind a rock so I'm supposing only somebody with a sharingan would be able to use this place. I finally take my art supplies out and lean against a tree. What should I do first? I casually take a stick of dango and take a small bite.

It's been awhile since I've drawn a dragon. I hover my pencil over the page. But what kind of dragon? One of the wise and beautiful ones or one of the powerful and vicious ones? Or a weird mix? Wise and powerful it is. I allow my hand to move and make a longer and more elegant head but add sharp eyes and a slightly quirked mouth to add more personality. I slowly and carefully draw enormous wings-

I jump and my pencil leaves an ugly mark across the paper as an ANBU appears in front of my. I glare up in irritation at the man in a cat mask who seems utterly unfazed.

"Hokage-sama wishes to see you in his office." My annoyance becomes confusion but before I can ask the ANBU's gone. I let out a sigh and pack everything back up. And I just got here too…

~0~

I walk up to the women at the reception and wait for her to look up. "Uh, somebody said that Hokage-sama wanted to see me." The women frowns at me over her glasses as she inspects me.

In a few seconds her frown is replaced with a fake smile, "oh, you must be Erin-chan!" I feel myself bristle at the "chan" but I don't say anything. "Just down that hallway." She points and I silently nod and walk away.

It's easy to find the door to the Hokage's office because it's the largest door (of course). I smoothly move to let myself in but my hand hovers over the doorknob when I hear arguing inside.

"-you must understand! She. Is. A. Threat!" An older voice, but not Hiruzen's snaps. "She should be kept under surveillance at all times. By somebody who's under me." I lean forward slightly to listen.

"Danzo, I have already agreed to put her in a jonin mentorship. I believe that that is enough." I frown, they must be talking about me. I stiffen when the Hokage speaks again, "come in Erin-kun. I know that you're there." I hesitantly open the door behind me and quietly close it. An ANBU stood behind each of the older men. One of them I recognize as the one who summoned me. To the left of the room in Hiruzen and on the other side a man who is half covered in bandages. That must be Danzo.

I turn my attention back to the Hokage and ask, "why have I been summoned?" Danzo lets out an unimpressed "tch" and Hiruzen gives me a grandfatherly smile.

"It has come to our attention that you did very well in your recent training exercise." He explained and I frowned, "but we also understand that you are a little behind in the academy's curriculum." I nod for him to go on, "so i've set up a mentorship for you." The Hokage sent Danzo an "are you happy now?" look. But he didn't seem satisfied at all.

I awkwardly stand there. What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to be excited and squealing? The two men look at me expectantly. I don't even know if I need any help, I feel as if I might even be ahead of the other students in some parts of the curriculum. Well, except maybe the three ninjutsu they teach us. But that just takes practice.

I eventually come to a decision and go into a slight bow. "Thank you Hokage-sama, I am behind. This mentorship should help me catch up." I lie smoothly. The old man nods at me and looks at Danzo.

"You're welcome Erin-kun. You may take your leave." That's it!? You interrupt my day just for about five minutes of explanation. "Oh- and by the way. You are to meet your jonin instructor every day after school until you reach genin." I nod and take my leave.

I let out a sigh as I walk. Why did he feel the need to call me all the way over here when he could just get a messenger to tell me? This place is so dumb. Once I'm out of the building I turn to make my way to the Uchiha compound. Again.

~0~

A/N: here's how the votes are going!

Snakes:5

Scorpions:6

Peacocks:8

No summoning:0

Nobody voted after the last chapter! What!? Guys, don't think I don't pay attention to how many followers and views I have! You can vote! Do not forget to vote!


	18. Chapter 19

Chapter 17:

I let out a yawn in the middle of math class. I learned this in like, grade three. That's the difference in education here and the education where I come from. I'm pretty sure that the people here think that their planet is flat I swear to god. I just want class to end so that I can meet my new "mentor".

I rest my chin on my hands and glance over at Naruto who was frowning furiously at a page. Apparently before I was here he always slept through most of his classes. Well, I corrected that quickly after the first time I caught him.

"Uuuum… Erin!" The boy looked at me.

"Hmm?"

"You get this right!? Can you show me how to do this?" I give a slight nod and Naruto slides the page over to me. I reach out with a pencil but keep my chin on one hand as I begin to scratch the page with semi-neat numbers.

"Ok, so what you do is multiply the bottom numbers from right to left." I scratch one hundred eighty three times twenty five and times the five by three, eight, and one. I then write nine hundred fifteen beneath. "Then I put an X or a zero below the five. Now, what's two times three?" I ask.

"Uh, six." I scratch a six down beside the X that I wrote.

"Two times eight?" The boy counted on his fingers in confusion for a moment.

"Sixteen!" I write another six and put a one on top of the other one.

"Two times one?" Naruto laughs and leans back in his chair.

"Everyone know that! It's two!" I give him a questioning look, "oh! And plus one equals three!" I nod and write it down.

"Now you just add the two numbers that you got together." I say and slide the page back over.

"Alright, I can do that! Ya know!" I thought that his thing was "believe it" but whatever. I look around. Iruka prowled through the seats, making sure that everyone was actually doing their work. I finished about ten minutes ago but it seems as though most my classmates are still having a difficult time getting the concept. I look down and see Sasuke just finishing his work. And going into his usual "I'm obviously plotting vengeance" pose. Haha, what a nerd. A smirk appears on my face, this guy is totally wasting his life and happiness for something that he might never get the chance to do.

As if sensing my thoughts the boy turns and glares at me. As usual I narrow my eyes back at him.

"Hey Naruto," I look up to see Iruka looking down at Naruto's paper. "You're doing really well! Keep it up!" Naruto grinned at him.

"It's because Erin helped me!" Iruka turns and nods at me. I can't help it, my lips twitch up slightly but I don't think that either of them see it. I jump when the bell finally rings. I abruptly jump up and grab my backpack, I want to get to the training grounds as quickly as possible.

I'm out of the room within five seconds despite the fact that I have to get past all of my classmates. "See you Iruka-sensei!" I call over my shoulder as I break into a power walk. I wonder who my mentor is going to be? It would make the most sense if it was Anko. She's probably the one that told the Hokage how well I was doing. She'd be a cool teacher too, I'd bet I could convince her to teach me how to summon snakes. But do I really want to summon snakes? Maybe I could summon something else. I'm suddenly overwhelmed with different ideas for a summoning animal. Who knows, maybe I could somehow start summoning giant moose because I'm Canadian- oh.

My slightly excited mood disappears when I make it out of the academy and find that my new teacher is waiting outside for me. It isn't Anko, it's probably somebody that I least expected. Konohamaru's teacher. I can't remember his name. Currently he's leaning against a tree in wait and his head turns in my direction when the main doors close behind me.

I hesitantly walk to him and awkwardly ask, "hey, are you my new sensei?" The man looks down at me with a slightly judgemental frown.

"Well, are you Erin-chan?" I feel a slight flare of irritation but I nod, "follow me then. I'll show you which training ground we're going to meet from now on." I realize that the Hokage hadn't even told me exactly where I was supposed meet my new teacher and that I would have just ran off to who knows where if this guy hadn't personally come to pick me up from the academy. That would have been embarrassing. "By the way, my name is Ebisu." I give a slight nod.

"It is nice to meet you Ebisu-san." The man lifts a finger and shakes it.

"That would be Ebisu-sensei from now on." I know exactly what I did. Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot.

"Then don't call me Erin-chan." I say with a shrug and I see Ebisu stiffen slightly. "Just Erin or Erin-san is fine."

"Well alright, Erin-san."

"Thank you, sensei." I smirk, Erin:1, Ebisu:0. We walk in silence for a few minutes before we reach the training grounds. I look around. This is basically the best training ground that I've seen so far. It has trees, a river, a large clearing, targets, training posts, and basically everything. Ebisu stops in the middle of the clearing and adjusts his glasses.

"I was thinking that today I could test all of your skills so that we know where to start. First we'll start with taijutsu." I nod and move so that I'm a few metres in front of him. I frown in confusion when the man brings a hand up in a half-sign.

"What are you doing?" I ask flatly, I thought that this was taijutsu. Not ninjutsu.

"The unity sign. This is a custom before sparring." My frown deepens, "don't tell me that you haven't been taught this." Ebisu looks annoyed, "if this is your level of etiquette, I don't even know if I want to know where you are in everything else." Excuse me!? I narrow my eyes, you don't have to have good etiquette to be skilled.

"Whatever." I sink into a defensive stance to show that I'm ready. Ooo, if we go through sealing I'm going to get some revenge for that comment. "Your move." It might sound dumb to give a jonin the first move but what Tae Kwon Do is based around self defence. They never really teach offensive moves often. And I don't want to give away my kicking combinations yet. I could use a little bit of Lee's style but that's ridiculously hard on my body.

Ebisu hesitates for a moment before coming at me with a punch. Why does everyone always come at me with punches!? They're literally the easiest things to defend against. I use a simple under block and spin with a kick. I don't know how it's physically possible but Ebisu manages to pull back before I can hit him. In a well practiced motion, I pull my leg from mid air back behind me. He's going easy on me. I can tell.

I debate on attacking him for moment before deciding that it's a dumb idea. I sink back into my defensive stance. Next time he attacks I'll just have do something different. Ebisu goes in for another punch just like before but I let out a gasp. This one is much, much, faster. I barely manage to redirect the blow before I jump back.

If I don't start attacking his blows are just going to get faster and stronger. I run forward and jump into the air, using a very small amount of chakra to give me a boost. Ebisu stares up up at me and I smirk. I slam my right leg down in an axe kick. Ebisu barely manages block my blow. I know that if he wasn't a ninja there might be the possibility that I could break his arm with this kick. I've broken boards with this and if I added chakra-

Ebisu suddenly grabs my foot and easily throws me to the ground like a sack of potatoes. I let out an "oof" as I'm suddenly winded. This is why I almost never take offense.

Ebisu walks up while I'm stuck on the ground. "That's enough. I can see that you're slightly above average in taijutsu." I nod in agreement and force my body to sit up. Ouch. "Next we'll see how you're doing in the three basic ninjutsu." I nod again and slowly stand up.

~0~

I roll my shoulders as I climb the stairs up to my apartment. What I learned today was: I need to become faster when it comes to building up chakra for a jutsu. And the fact that when I use chakra my blood vessels become visible is a dead give away to enemies (no duh) so when I'm on a mission I have to have the least amount of skin showing as possible. Ebisu even suggested that I get a mask and gloves. Man, I'm always going to have to wear my trench coat even if it's boiling out. I let out a sigh, I'm also planning on getting some closed toed shoes as well because just think about common sense. "Oh here I go to become a ninja and jump through forests and all of that stuff. Sure! Let's wear SANDALS!"

My thoughts are interrupted when I reach my apartment and find somebody standing in front of the door. "Hey, it's been awhile!" I immediately recognize the voice and can't help but have a faint smile appear on my lips.

"Minami." I greet and walk up. "I haven't seen you in… Well, since I've started at the academy." The older woman smiled down at me.

"I was hoping that we could go out for barbecue tonight," she pauses for a moment before adding quickly, "if you're not busy of course!"

I shake my head, "nah, I was just planning on having instant ramen for dinner anyway." Minami gave me a look and I smirked and shrugged.

"I hope that you haven't been eating that stuff regularly." Minami huffed as she grabbed my hand and led me back down the stairs into the streets. "When we get there I want you to tell me about everything that's happened in the academy so far." I roll my eyes at her but continue to let myself be led.

We reach the restaurant quickly and we sit and wait for our orders. "So," I look up and Minami is looking at me intently, "how's school? Have you made any friends? Are there any boys that you like?" I wrinkle my nose in disgust when she asks if there are any boys that I like.

"School's alright. I have a few friends. And no. I don't like anyone." I answer vaguely, "besides, all of my classmates are like, eleven and twelve." Minami finally waves her hand, ready to move on.

"So what have you learned?" I shrug and glance to my right as a waitress comes and sets down our food. We both set our meat on the grill in front of us and Minami sends me an unimpressed look. "I know for a fact that you've learned some things Erin."

I shrug once again and turn my meat over, "well, I found that I already knew about the majority of subjects." I pause before continuing, "the only classes that I've learnt from would probably be…hmm, ninjutsu, ninja tools, and kunoichi class." As I list them off I count on my fingers. Minami raises her brows at me.

"Nothing about the chakra network or taijutsu?" She asks and she picks some food off of the grill to place on a plate.

"I guess a little on the chakra network. But I already studied a little on that before I started at the academy." I pause to put a piece in my mouth, "and everyone basically has their own form of taijutsu. I can beat all of my classmates in taijutsu, except for maybe Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Uchiha Sasuke." Minami's eyes flick up at the mention of Sasuke.

"Are you friends with those three?" I frown, why would she ask that?

"Yeah, I'm friends with Kiba. I'm kind of friends with Hinata." I pause and chuckle slightly, "but Sasuke and I hate each other with a passion." Minami frowns at me.

"Why's that?" She asks quietly. Oh, where do I start?

"Well, I don't like Sasuke because he acts like he's better than everyone else." I raise my hands in a slightly confused expression, "hmm, I'm not absolutely sure why Sasuke doesn't like me. But I think that I've given him a few reasons." Minami nods and looks like she's going to focus on eating until she speaks again.

"I personally think that you might not like each other because you're so much alike." I choke on my food and sit there coughing for a few seconds.

"What!?" I drop my cool for a few seconds, "there is no way I'm anything like that selfish brat!" I snap as I lean over the table.

Minami shrinks back slightly but continues. "I don't mean in attitude. I mean in experience." I calm down slightly and look at her, confused. "You haven't told me, but I can tell that you've lost a lot. Just like Sasuke-kun. And I might be wrong, I can only hope that someday you'll be comfortable enough to tell me about what happened." This time I shrink back and sit in my seat.

I look down and pick at my food, "I'm sorry I snapped at you." I murmur, I then promptly decide to move on. "So I'm starting to get into sealing…"

~0~

A/N: and Minami emerges from the depths of wherever she disappeared to. This isn't one of my favour chapters, but whatever. I'm going to try to speed up the story a little since I haven't reached the main storyline yet.

Here's how the votes are going:

Snakes:5

Scorpions:6

Peacocks:8

No summoning:0

You guys didn't vote again! Hmm, if I don't get any votes for the next few chapters I'll just choose the winner! See you! Don't forget to vote.

Also don't forget to reviewI love hearing your feedback and answering your questions!


	19. Chapter 18

A/N: so… We've reached 4000 views! And you all know what that means! Special chapter! I didn't know who's POV to put this chapter in. So I decided to put some backstory on Erin. Get ready for some major adorable-ness and some major feels! Enjoy!

To : I'm really sorry but you can only vote once. You can switch your vote though if you want to.

~0~

Chapter 18:

"Rain, rain! Come and play! We don't wanna wait another day!" A young redhead sang as she skipped around the back yard in her bathing suit. She stopped and puffed up her freckled cheeks at the cloudy sky, "come on! I know that you wanna rain! So just do it." An older boy laughed and walked up to her.

"Ya know, we could just use the sprinkler." The older boy had red hair that matched the girl's and pale green eyes. The girl put her hands on her hips haughtily and glared at the boy.

"No we can't! The sky's just going to do what it always does as soon as we set it up!" She pointed up at the dark clouds, "it will rain!" The boy let out a sigh of defeat and sat down beside her in wait. It didn't take more than ten seconds for the girl to follow her elder brother.

After a long while, the boy decided to take a different approach. "Hey Erin." Icy blue eyes turned to look and saw a knowing smirk on the boys face. "Do you want to watch me play some games until the rain decides to come?" On cue, the girl's face lit up and she stood.

"Can I draw while you play!?" The smirk becomes a smile and the boy nods. "Yay! Let's go!" She pumps a fist into the air and marches towards the house. The boy smiles as he stands and follows the five year old.

When they step inside through the back door the back of their mother's head as she watched the news. "Hi mom!" Conner called as he walked past. The woman turned and looked at the boy.

"Hey Comner, going downstairs?" The boy nodded. Their mother looked at Erin as she tentatively waved, "Erin." She greeted and turned around. The girls face dropped briefly before Conner grabbed her hand and led her downstairs.

~0~

Erin silently followed behind her mother and Conner as they trekked to the park. At the age of six she had become slightly more reserved. "Conner! I'll beat to the swings!" She said before bolting ahead. Emphasis on slightly. The nine year old yelled and complained about how she got a head start but quickly caught up.

The girl puffed her cheeks up as her fellow redhead reached the swings seconds before her. "That's no fair! I have little legs." She snapped in frustration. Conner sat on one of the swings with his signature smirk on his face.

"Maybe when you get older you'll be able to beat me." The boy held out a hand in what appeared to be a high five invitation and Erin grinned. The girl balled up her fist and fistbumped the open palm, Conner wrapped his fingers around the tiny hand and squeezed briefly.

The moment is interrupted when their mother speaks, "are you two going to swing or not? I didn't bring you here just so that you could sit around." Erin rolled her eyes and climbed onto one of the swings which was way to talk for her. At the age of six she already knew how to swing herself. Conner quickly followed Erin's motions and soon they were swinging together.

"Ha! We're double dating!" Erin giggles in delight. Conner gave a shocked gasp and covered his eyes.

"Oh no! This is so embarrassing!" The girl's giggles turned into laughter as her older sibling had a (fake) freak out session. "I don't think that I'm ready for this yet!" He cries furiously.

"Well you don't have to!" Erin says and promptly let's herself sail off of the swings. She lets out squeal of excitement before she lands on the sand and quickly stands up. "See ya!" The girl bolts away and past her mother who rolls her eyes at her daughters behaviour.

"Wait!" Conner jumps off of the swings himself and runs after her.

The chase is quickly ended when Conner finds Erin on the top branch of a tree and had to talk her through coming down. "I'm sorry." The girl looks down sadly, "I thought that I was a ninja." Conner simply chuckled and turned around as they heard their mother shout.

"Alright, that's enough. Let's go." The woman waved for them to follow as she left. Clearly she was leaving with or without them so they followed.

"But we just got here." Mumbled Erin to her older brother who shrugged and hopped forward to walk alongside their mother. Erin stayed slightly behind the two and looked around at the people in the surrounding area. She could see at least ten other children playing. Some with others their age and some with their parents. Erin felt a small flare of emotion when she saw a boy about her age skipping alongside their mother with his hand intertwined with hers. Erin looked forward at her own mother who only appeared to be interested with what was straight ahead. Erin hesitantly reached her hand to intertwine it with her mother's. The moment her hand brushed the woman's it flinched up and she turned and glared at Erin who looked down at her feet as she walked in shame.

After a few minutes Erin reached out for Conner's hand instead. The boy squeezed her hand briefly and pulled her forward slightly so she could walk beside him instead of behind. Erin smiled, slightly cheered up by her brother's affection but when she looks back up at her mother who continued to stare straight forward she can't help but feel pain in her chest.

~0~

Erin sat at the table solemnly as her father yelled about his frustrations of the day. By now, when she was nine, she knew to be silent when her father had a bad day at work. She entertained herself by spinning a fork in her right hand in a well practiced motion. Erin glanced to her right at Conner. The now twelve year old made eye contact and did a dramatic eye roll. She didn't react and turned her attention to the food on the table. Tyler's rant was delaying their mealtime.

"-at this rate we might not have a choice but to have you work, Beth!" Erin now rolled her eyes. She believed that her mother should be working anyways. So far she has claimed to be a "stay at home mom". But in reality she hasn't done any parenting. Beth had basically been riding off of Tyler's back.

Beth let out an exhausted sigh and leaned forward, "we wouldn't have this problem if we stopped at one kid." There is was. Erin narrowed her eyes when both of her parents turned to send her a glare. "But you thought that maybe the second one would be just as good as the first one. See? Look, she isn't even happy to be here!" The girl can't help but bring in a deep breath of air but stopped herself when she saw Conner shaking his head on the edge of her vision.

"Anyway, let's eat." Her father finally picked up a fork and begin dishing up.

~0~

A few months later, after Erin turned ten. She biked home alone. Conner had had to stay back for track practice. She glanced back at the school and watched children excitedly tell their parents about their day as they were led to their cars. For a brief moment, Erin felt vicious jealousy naw at her insides. It was quickly suppressed and she turned back to bike. She had approximately four kilometres to bike.

It took her about twenty five minutes for her to reach her home. When she walked in her mother was staring at the television instead of what a "stay at home mom" was supposed to do. Erin thought in irritation how easily Beth could come and pick her and Conner up from school. Not that she was necessarily interested in being that near her mother. Without a word from either sides, Erin smoothly walked past the back of the couch and into her room. Ignoring the unfolded clothes and blankets. Her mother can do her own job. She is an adult. The room was fairly plain other than the art supplies scattered across the wooden desk and a large, full bookshelf. Erin moved and grabbed a book at random and sprawled onto her bed to reread the first few chapters.

Erin spent the rest of her afternoon in her room until she was called for dinner. She placed herself in her usual spot beside Conner on the other side of the table. Erin found that luckily her father had had a better day of work and they got to eat quickly. That was until her mother decided to open her mouth.

"Erin." Erin lazily glanced up to see the look that her mother gives when she thinks that since their related she can give orders. "I've heard from your teachers that you haven't been doing as well in school." Oh so she bothered to pay attention. "At this rate you won't be able to graduate high school."

Erin narrowed her eyes at Beth. This was none of her business. "Well mother." She took a full bite of food and took her time before finishing. "I have recently heard that a stripper in some places can earn up to five hundred dollars a night. That would be more than what father makes." The entire family chokes on their food. The girl finishes off her plate before the others can recover and leaves for her room.

~0~

"You're button smashing."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

Erin played against her older brother who had resorted to cheap moves and irritating remarks. Conner had his signature smirk while he pressed on the controller at random. The girl shot him an unimpressed look as her fighter was knocked off of the screen.

"Winner!" Conner pumped a fist into the air enthusiastically while Erin let out a groan.

"That didn't even count." She mumbled and leaned back. They say in silence for a couple of minutes and Erin watched as Conner's content smile slowly dissipated into a grim look. He'd been acting strange for the past few weeks. "Wha-" She's interrupted when a shout came from upstairs for them to come for dinner.

Conner promptly shot up and climbed up the stairs two at a time. Without a word Erin followed and quickly found her seat. She let out a sigh when she recognized her father tightened lips and stiff stature. He was going to rant to them about his woes of adulthood and then he will go drinking. He had been complaining for the past, at least six years and Beth hadn't moved a single muscle to support Tyler. The rant ended with Beth's usual reaction, and Erin was done with dealing with this almost every night. Today she was prepared.

"I wish we hadn't-" Beth is interrupted when Erin slams her hands into the table and stands.

"THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU!?" She snarled and sent them venomous looks. Everyone blinked in confusion. "Then. Why. The. Hell. Did. You? Why didn't you freaking put me up for adoption if I'm the reason why you can't be upper middle class." She give them a fake pouting face. "Or are you so obsessed with being the victims in your first world problems!? Beth could literally go out and get a job if she felt like it. But she hasn't! Because she's a lazy piece of shit!" She took a deep breath and pointed at Tyler next. "And you! You must ruin almost each and every day for us!" Erin gestured between herself and Conner who was staring at the seen with wide and shocked eyes. "You complain about your stupid job every day! You could just get a new job! Or do you just hate working!? Maybe there's a reason why you don't get payed enough for your stupid fantasy life!? Have you ever thought about that!? Maybe you should check out your drinking problem too!? No wonder I'll never be successful! Both of you are terrible parents and terrible influences!" The three that she had been screaming at stared at her dumbfounded until her mother decided to move.

Smack!

The eleven year old gently touched her cheek in shock and gazed at the women. "Y-You, go to your room." Beth's voice shook with anger and Erin slowly stood and left.

Once she reached her room she slumped onto the bed and touched her cheek again. She couldn't believe what she just did. She slowly laid down and wondered what Conner was going to say. Tears slowly trickled down her face but she didn't bother to wipe them off. She didn't know how long she laid there. But she jumped when she heard a very gentle knock on her door. The redhead slowly rolled over and watched as the door opened by a small crack.

"E-Erin?" Erin released a breath when she recognized her brother as he carefully stepped into the room. She didn't answer though and she gazed curiously at the phone in his hand as he settled on her bed beside her. "Erin." He said seriously and looked at her. "I've been thinking about this for a while now. I-I want to call child protective services." Erin gaped at him. That wasn't what she was expecting. "We'll both get out of here." Conner gave her a nervous and questioning look and she thought for a second. The decision was made quickly and Erin held out a hand in a fist bump motion. Conner gave a weak smile and wrapped his hand around hers and slowly began dialing.

~0~

A/N: Yay! Double post! Just so you know, Conner and Erin's fistbump-high five is basically their version of Sasuke and Itachi's forehead poke. I feel that this chapter escalated quickly, lol. (Notice how Erin used to be a sweet innocent cinnamon roll please love her)

Here's how the votes are going:

Snakes:5

Scorpions:8

Peacocks:8

No summoning:0

Ooo, it's a tie! Don't forget to vote!


	20. Chapter actual 19

Chapter 19:

Yes! I stare at my new Konoha headband that signified me being a shinobi! I can't control the smile that creeps onto my face as I blink at it. "Th-Thank you Iruka-sensei, Mizuki-sensei." The two give me a simple nod with proud smiles. Well, I'm pretty sure that Mizuki's faking but that doesn't matter right now. They're going to catch him later tonight.

I've graduated with a tie with Sasuke for rookie of the year. That's fairly impressive for three months right? I don't pay attention as Iruka explains that I'm dismissed and that I'm to come back tomorrow to meet my jonin sensei. I nod distractedly and practically skip down the hall all of the way outside.

Once I'm outside I briefly glance around to see many of my classmates showing their parents their brand new headbands. Some have already tied them tightly around their foreheads. I can't help but slowly reach up and tie my own on. The metal presses uncomfortably against my forehead and I feel a flare of irritation. If it's going to feel like this there is no way I'm going to wear it the way that I am. I try slightly slanting it so that it isn't quite covering my eye but so that it fits more comfortably. But, it promptly slides down my face and lands on my neck. That works too.

My faint smile abruptly disappears when I glance at the swings. What I see is probably the saddest picture that I have ever seen. Naruto dangled and hung his head in a depressed manner and silently watched the excited children with their headbands. A wave of guilt sweeps through me and I quickly take my headband off before walking over to him. Once I reach him I don't say a word and sit on the grass beside his swing. He doesn't acknowledge me immediately. I find myself quietly picking at the grass for several minutes before Naruto finally speaks.

"So, you passed, huh?" The tone in his voice makes my heart break a little for him. I oddly feel ashamed of my accomplishment even though I'm aware that he's going to become a genin tonight. I nod slightly and continue to look down. "Well, great job. I hope that I can become a genin soon too." An awful feeling fills my stomach.

"Naruto, I'm sure that you'll get it right away." I assure honestly. But he doesn't realise it. The boy chuckled sadly and I looked up at him.

"Well I was hoping that I could be on your team, ya know." He said sadly. I frown at him, if only I could tell…

I look to the front doors and see Mizuki looking at us. I may as well just let things play out. "Anyway, I'm sorry Naruto, but I need to go." The boy nods at me and I stand and walk away. As I glance back I can see Mizuki walking over to Naruto.

~0~

"Hey Erin!" I hear a shout as I walk along the street. I turn around to see Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji, and Shino. Kiba and Choji are waving me over. I silently turn and walk back to meet the boys.

"Hey, what is it?" I ask once I reach them.

"We are planning to go to get barbecue tonight to celebrate becoming genin." Shino explained and I blink at him. A while ago I convinced Kiba to invite Shino to eat lunches with us. Not long before that, I invited Naruto.

I glance at Shikamaru who nodded, "yeah, and we're gonna invite our parents too." The entire group stiffened and everyone stared at me for a moment. "Um, and you could invite some people too. If you want." He adds uncomfortably. Oh, I glance around to see everyone staring awkwardly at me. I've never mentioned my parents before so they must have made educated guesses.

I react by simply nodding. "Sure. I'll come, and I have a few people that I might invite." I add with a slight smirk as I turn to walk away, "see you then." I hear several goodbyes behind me and I slightly speed up my pace. Ebisu will be waiting at the training grounds to find out if I made it. And I feel like if I didn't… I'd rather not think about that. He even told that if I graduated at any rank less than top of the class then he would have failed as a teacher. And I would greatly disappoint him. I hope that he'll accept tied for rookie of the year.

I have my usual smirk as I walk through the streets. I can't help but notice most of the civilians making sure that they aren't within a metres radius of me. But that isn't any different. It's like that in class too. Even with my, well, I think of them as friends they're usually about at least a couple of feet away. Nobody goes past my personal bubble.

I soon reach the training ground and feel Ebisu's chakra approximately twenty five feet away. A small grin reveals itself. I'm going to scare him. This may sound like a stupid idea but soon after he became my mentor. I found out that Ebisu and other shinobi. Tend to not pay attention for other signs of somebody's presence other than their chakra signature. Unless of course they're ridiculously paranoid. Anyway, this gives me a huge advantage especially if shinobi from other villages are like this. It helps that I'm a sensory type as well.

I smoothly make my way through the undergrowth. Carefully placing my feet and barely touching the branches as to not make a sound. Soon I see the back of his head and I move more slowly. I am about to perform a truck that I have learned within the past few months. When most shinobi switch with an object, they typically will use a log, dummy, or another person. I believe in thinking outside of the box. Why not switch with anything and everything!? I could switch with a leaf drifting in the breeze if I felt like it. This skill will probably piss so many overpowered opponents off!

I smirk and switch with a small pebble which is directly in front of Ebisu. "GAH!" I shout to surprise him but I don't get a reaction. "Oh. I was hoping to scare you." I stated flatly and frown when yet again I don't get a reaction. Ebisu stares straight ahead and doesn't acknowledge my existence.

"Hey, Sensei, are you alright?" I wave a hand in front of his face but he holds completely still. Now I'm getting worried. I do a mental check of his chakra. Alright, he isn't in a genjutsu. But it seems like there's less chakra-

Oh. I grab one of my emergency kunai from my pocket and launch it at the "Ebisu" in front of me. It flies right through him. "Ebisu-sensei, I know that this is a clone! You can come out now." I stiffen when hear a sound like something flipping through the air and feel something shift beneath me. I stand there for a moment, looking around in confusion. Suddenly I'm surrounded by ropes. I yell in surprise and jump upwards but the net follows and within five seconds I'm hanging in midair. I let out a loud string of English curses and watch furiously as the real Ebisu steps out of the bushes.

"I thought that it was about time that you learned that you aren't the only one who can conceal your chakra." He explained in his usual snooty way. I narrow my eyes and let out very many English insults. After a few minutes I fall silent and Ebisu pauses in case I have more words up my sleeve and finally takes the chance to speak. "Are you done now?"

"Yes." I growl. I fumble for a moment and use a kunai to cut myself out of the net.

"By the way, if that ever happens again perhaps instead of insulting your opponent you could focus on escaping in the first place." He lectures.

I raise from my couched position and face him. "I will, as soon as someone who is an actual threat manages to catch me in a trap." I end with a smirk despite my monotonous voice. I watch as Ebisu's lips tighten slightly. Erin:45, Ebisu:16

The man quickly changes the subject. "Did you pass?" I grin and reach into my pocket to hold the headband out. He looks at it judgingly for a moment, "...are you sure that it's real?" This time I tighten my lips. Erin:45, Ebisu:17. He started coming up with comebacks throughout the past three weeks.

I let out a huff and place it back in my pocket. "Yes. It is in fact genuine." I pause, "and before you ask, I graduated tied for rookie of the year." Ebisu nods in satisfaction and adjusts his glasses.

"There is a reason why I was chosen to mentor you." He says proudly and I roll my eyes.

"Anyway, Ebisu-sensei there's this thing. Some friends and I are going out for barbecue and I was wondering if you wanted to…"

~0~

"Excuse me, is Saitō Minami here?" I ask the woman at the front desk of the hospital.

She nods, "here, I'll call her to the front for you." She walks over to a telephone and speaks into it for a few moments before she comes back and sits in her desk. "She'll be here in a moment, dear." I nod and step back.

Minami is here with a few minutes, looking her usual frantic self. She looks around in confusion for a second before she spots me and smiles. "Erin! How are you?" She greets as she walks over.

I give her a triumphant smirk and pull out my new headband. "I passed." Minami looks at me as she comprehends what I said before practically bursting in excitement.

"Oh that so amazing!" She cries and before I can react, she catches me in an embrace. "I'm so, so, happy for you! And you've worked so hard! And you totally deserve this rank!" I awkwardly pat her back as she gushes. I don't really know how to react. She soon releases me and I step back.

"Yeah, um, thanks." I say awkwardly before continuing. "Anyway, tonight some of my friends and I are going for barbecue to celebrate. I was wondering if you wanted to come if you aren't busy. Ebisu-sensei's coming too." I explain.

"Oh, what friends?" I blink at her in confusion and she takes a second to realize how savage her question is. She yelps and furiously waves her hands in front of her, "I mean- not like that!"

"It's fine, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, and Shino are coming. They're inviting their parents." I explain.

She thinks for a moment. "Sure! I think that I'll be free tonight! See you there, I need to get to work!" I wave as I leave the hospital and walk down the street.

~0~

I wave back at Kiba as I spot him walking toward the restaurant which currently only Shikamaru, Choji, the people that we invited, and I, were standing in front of. Only Shikamaru's mom could make it tonight. Both of Choji's came with him. It looks like Kiba has his mom and his sister. And all of their dogs. I'm wondering if they'll even be allowed in the restaurant. I stand with Minami and Ebisu. I had invited Lee after I told him about my new rank and he straight up took advantage of the fact that I'm far smaller and lighter than him and lifted me into the air and spun me around. I don't think he realized how embarrassing that was for me because I was completely helpless. That's something new to learn. If you're fighting an enemy (especially if you're small) do not let them get a hold of you. Or let them somehow lift you in the air. Because your tiny and short limbs will in fact rendered useless. Anyway, he can't come because he has a mission tomorrow and he has to get ready.

When the Inuzuka family reaches us Hana immediately looks at me, "mom, this is the pretty girl from before." My pale face promptly turns bright red and I stand slightly behind Minami.

"HANA!" Kiba shouts furiously in embarrassment. "Don't do that!" Akamaru barked in agreement. The boy furiously shouts at his sister while his mother examines me.

After a few seconds she finally speaks, "well, you're definitely odd looking. I'll give you that." She chuckled.

"Stume-san! That's so rude!" Snapped Shikamaru's and Choji's mothers in unison.

"She smells odd too." Rumbled the dog with the eye patch. I gape at it. Did it just talk!? Ok, so now I live in a world with talking dogs. I know that apparently summoning creatures talk but I assumed that that was just an anime thing. As many people around me begin arguing I feel as if all of my beliefs and reality are collapsing around me. It must be an amusing, seeing a group of many people including a dog arguing and shouting at each other while one girl stands in the middle and string at the sky. That's what Shino see's.

I blink from my momentary trance and spot Shino and who appears to be his father standing and silently taking in the scene before them. I wave slightly as if nothing happened and walk over to the two.

"Hey Shino." The boy "hn'd" in acknowledgement and continued to watch everyone. "Hello, you must be Aburame-san. I'm Latté Erin." The man "hn'd" in acknowledgment. After a few minutes, Shikamaru's mother noticed the two Aburame's and somehow got everyone to be quiet and we all got a table. Including all of the dogs.

I strategically place myself as far away from the Inuzuka's as possible to avoid any more uncomfortable situations. I sit with Minami to my right and Shikamaru to my left. After a few minutes of listening to other people's small talk. I lean over to speak to Ebisu, who is to Minami's right.

"Hey, Ebisu-sensei?" I smirk when he turns to look at me. I know what the question I'm about to ask will cause."you must know who our jonin sensei's will be. Same with our teams." This sends everyone else into an explosion of questions. While poor Ebisu tried to explain how he couldn't tell us. I chuckle slightly to myself at the discord that I have caused. Now that everyone else is distracted, I can get some extra food. I glance to my left at Shikamaru who lets out an exhausted sigh.

"Like I said before, you only seem to be happy when somebody else is suffering." He drones and I shrug.

"I was genuinely happy once, but nobody was there to see." I answer sarcastically.

~0~

A/N: and there's chapter 19! Next chapter you'll find out who Erin's team is! I'm glad because I was all like: "oh would you look at that! It's chapter 18 and the main plot hasn't even started yet!"

Here's how the votes are going:

Snakes:5

Scorpions:11

Peacocks:8

No summoning:1

Wow! Scorpions are in the lead! I'll probably announce the winner after the next chapter! Don't forget to vote!


	21. Chapter 20

To SoraLover987142:

Like I said before, you can only vote once. You can change your vote though.

~0~

Chapter 20:

I let out a dramatic yawn as I sit, half asleep beside Shikamaru. He yawns too. His mood has rubbed off on me. We are currently waiting to find out our teams and our new Sensei's. I rub my eyes and look at Shikamaru.

"Who do you think our teams are going to be?" I ask to pass the time. Shikamaru pauses in doing nothing with a thoughtful expression.

"Well, I'm probably going to be with Ino and Choji. Because of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation." He paused and frowned slightly. "I'm not so sure about you though. I think that either you or Sasuke will be with Naruto. Because both of you are the best in the class and he's the worst." I nod, but honestly I'd rather not be with Naruto. It's not that I dislike him. It's just that he literally attracts trouble. And let's be honest, I didn't become a shinobi for honour or protecting the village or anything like that. I became a shinobi so that I can protect myself in this world. If I'm put in team seven, I'll have to face people like Orochimaru and Itachi and Kisame and all of the Akatsuki. And I don't even know very much about them. All I know of for their members is the two that I just listed. And if all of them are anywhere near that strong then I won't stand a chance. Honestly, I'm hoping to be put with a team that they don't show in the anime. Maybe I could get them to pass the test to put us on the map.

I jump when I hear a lot of screaming and shouting from a group Sasuke fangirls and an awful lot of apologies from Naruto. I roll my eyes and rest my chin on my hands. "Alright everyone, settle down!" I hear Iruka shout over the chaos. "I'm going to assign your squadrons! One Squad will have four members!" I glance up and see him at the front of the classroom with a sheet of paper

I listen carefully for my own name as he lists the the teams off. Once he reaches five a nervous flutter goes through my stomach. We're running out of unimportant characters here. I stiffen when Iruka says yet another squad of unimportant characters. "Squad seven: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Latté Erin." Despite the mispronunciation of my last name I recognize it...

…

Shit.

Naruto turns to me and grins after reacting to his-no. I mean our other teammates.

Shit.

Sakura and Sasuke both turn to glare at me.

No. I don't want to.

I stand silently and Iruka turns to stare at me. "Where are you going Erin?" Eyes are on me as I make my way out of the classroom.

"Bathroom." I answer monotonously as I close the door behind me. I quickly make my to the bathroom. Once I'm there I promptly lock myself in a stull and stand silently. Once I'm absolutely sure that I'm alone panic rises in my chest. Of course I have to be in THAT team. Any other team would be just fine but of course it's them. I take a deep breath and reach a hand up to my face. Now what? Now I have to deal with every single overpowered protagonist. My breath quickens and I try my best to control it. I think of the opponents that I'll have to face and wonder about the ones that I'm unaware of. How many enemies are there? How many members of the Akatsuki are there? How long will it be before I have to fight Orochimaru? What do I do if he comes after me instead of Sasuke? He's already shown interest in me.

I silently hug my sides to try to comfort myself. 'I wish that Conner was here' a single tear falls down my cheek. I stiffen when I hear the bathroom door open and close.

"E-Erin?" I recognize the voice of Hinata.

"Yes?" I answer monotonously. I wipe my tear away and move to open the door.

"Well I was j-just wondering if you were all right." I move out of the stall to see her watching me worriedly, "since you walked out and all." I nod and glance at the mirrors. Good, it doesn't look like I was just crying.

"Well, I'm fine. Thanks Hinata." The girl blinked at me worriedly and twiddled with her fingers.

"I-It's lunchtime now. We're eating with our teams. I was put with Kiba-kun and Shino-kun." She explained in her quiet voice, "you can come eat with us i-if you want."

I shrug and move towards the door. "I think I'm good. I should probably find my own team. Thanks anyway." I hear a quiet "ok" and close the door behind me. I quickly make my way out of the school in search of my fellow "lucky sevens".

~0~

Once I'm outside I blink and look around. There isn't a single one of my teammates in sight. I roll my eyes and focus more on the chakra signatures around me. It isn't very difficult to find Naruto's chakra. I hop up onto a tree and quickly make my way toward the warm and cheerful signature. It seems like he's on the rooftops. And judging from the sudden flaring in his energy he's nervous. I quickly spot the bright orange jumpsuit and jump in front of him. I can't help but proudly note how my trench coat flows in a dramatic and majestic way as I land.

"What are you doing?" I ask and Naruto practically screeches in surprise. I smirk.

"U-Uh, well I uh. Am gonna go eat with Sakura-chan!" I furrow my brows at him. I doubt that Sakura would want to eat with him. "Well, uh, I've gotta go!" I frown at him as he runs off.

"Wait," the boy glanced back, "where's Sasuke?" The boy falters in his steps briefly before turning around and shrugging.

"Beats me." He then sprints off. Irritation flares in my stomach and I turn around. Whatever. He could definitely do far better than Sakura. But if he wants to waste his time chasing her so be it. I walk smoothly across the roof. I mean, I'm not talking about myself, I'm about three years older than him. I just know that there is a certain Hyuuga girl who is nice and has had an adorable crush on him for a while (hint, hint).

I blink in surprise when I see Sasuke jump out of an apartment window and brush himself off. I frown in confusion when he spots me and narrows his eyes.

"Where's Naruto?" He growled. Without a word I point towards the direction that he ran off. Sasuke turns and walks in that direction with purpose.

"Wait, hey Sasuke?" I ask tentatively and he pauses to turn around. "I was wondering, maybe we could convince the rest of our squad to eat together since you know, we're going to be stuck together-oh ok." As I was speaking he simply jumped off. What a little dick.

I turn around and focus on where I can sense Hinata's chakra. Maybe I can still eat with them.

~0~

I find myself in a position similar to Sasuke's after waiting for our new Sensei for an hour. Everyone else's new squad leaders have came and went. I am rapidly loosing my patience. I do not even want to be here. Naruto paces around the room impatiently, every few minutes, he cracks the door open to look down the hall. This usually ends with him groaning in frustration and slamming it shut.

It eventually appears as if the boy loses all of his patience. "That's it! I'll show that bastard what happens when he wastes our time!" He pulls a table in front of the door and reaches for a blackboard eraser.

"Naruto? What are you doing?" Asks Sakura in irritation, "Naruto! You aren't supposed to do that! We'll get in so much trouble!" The boy giggles evilly and reaches to wedge the eraser between the slide door and the wall.

"Naruto wait." The boy turns around to look at me nervously. Clearly expecting a scolding. I look up darkly and pull out a pen and and a small tag. "We must think this through carefully. I mean, is the eraser really enough? Why not leave something more memorable?"

I overhear Naruto cheer, "oh! Erin's gonna make this guy explode!" I skillfully scribble on the tag. Mostly using English but adding a few roman honorifics just because I can. I even add a small amount of Korean and Spanish.

"Now." I growl as I look down proudly at the tag. Written in a perfect circular pattern."Give me the eraser." Naruto giggles gleefully and hands it to me. I then slap it on and hand it back.

"You guys can't be serious! I understand with Naruto, but you too Erin!?" Cries Sakura and I send her a glare. The girl abruptly shrinks and falls silent.

"One hour is three hours too late to keep me waiting." I practically hiss. I then lean back into my chair and watch as Naruto wedges the eraser in between the door and the wall. Sakura now has a concerned look on her face.

"Erin? How big is the explosion going to be?" She asks hesitantly.

"Big enough." This makes her appear more nervous and I smirk. In reality it will be more like a firecracker. Maybe it'll singe Kakashi's hair but not much else. But it is indeed big enough to get our point across. I could be home or eating some dango by now if he was on time. He definitely deserves it.

"Hn." I look to my left to see Sasuke glaring at me. "That stupid trick won't ever work on a jonin."

"WATCH IT!" Naruto answers for me while waving his arms in irritation. I let out a sigh and simply begin doodling on a piece of paper.

~0~

It takes another TWO FREAKING HOURS for Kakashi to show up. I narrow my eyes when I feel a chakra signature making its way through the hallway. "He's coming." I growl, Naruto and Sakura jump from their seats while Sasuke and I stay put.

Within a few seconds the door slides open and a man with gravity defying silver hair steps in. I smirk as the eraser falls right onto his head with a puff of chalk.

"Ha! Did you see that! He totally fell for it!" Cries Naruto in glee as he points at him.

Sakura looked confused for a moment before bringing her hands up to her chest and saying nervously. "I'm so sorry sensei! I-I tried to stop them but they wouldn't listen." I roll my eyes. She didn't try THAT hard.

At that moment, with a loud crackling sound, the eraser on Kakashi's head promptly explodes. I can't help but grin at the aftermath when the smoke clears. Everything with three feet of Kakashi is snowy white from the chalk. That includes Sakura and Naruto. I look to my left and see Sasuke looking at Kakashi with an utterly dissatisfied look. We meet eyes and I shrug in fake confusion. Both of us are slightly disappointed in our new teacher.

Kakashi looks at each of us with an assessing look. Once he reaches me I narrow my eyes and straighten my back slightly in a challenging look.

"Let's see… as for my first impression of this squad…" he says thoughtfully and everyone except for me leans forward with interest. "I hate all of you."

The others seem taken aback but I smirk. "Meet me on the roof." Kakashi growls before promptly body flickering away.

We sit there in confusion for a moment before I stand and make my way towards the door. Naruto quickly falls in beside me, "hey! You should have told me that some of the chalk would hit me!"

"Meh." I shrug and continue walking.

~0~

"Alright, first you guys are going to introduce yourselves." Kakashi says as he leans against the roofs railing. My new team, sits on a small set of stairs. Me on the end beside Naruto who is beside Sakura who is beside Sasuke. Who is sitting slightly farther off. Naruto looks utterly confused along with Sakura. Sasuke and I most likely are simply irritated. After a few moments of silence, Kakashi lets out an exasperated sigh. "I mean; your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams, things like that."

Still, there's still silence. Nobody wants to go first. "Whatever, I'll just go first." Kakashi says with a shrug. "My name is Hatake Kakashi. I don't really feel like telling you about my likes and dislikes. I haven't really thought about my dreams. And as for my hobbies… I have many." I roll my eyes.

"So all we really learned about him is his name." Whispers Sakura quietly.

"No kidding." Answered Naruto quietly. I amusedly note how they are still covered in chalk. Kakashi is too.

"Alright. You, in the orange jumpsuit go next." I'm not sure why he would call Naruto "the one in the orange jumpsuit". Since he's still covered with chalk.

Despite that, Naruto leans forward and adjusts his headband. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like instant ramen, but my favourite is the ramen at Ichiraku's. Sometimes Iruka-sensei and Erin go with me!" The boy pauses to grin at me. "I don't like the three minutes that you have to wait after pouring water into a cup of instant ramen. My hobby is eating and comparing different types of ramen. And as for my dream… I want to become Hokage!" Well that took a sudden turn. "Then everyone will have to start respecting me and acknowledging my presence!" Damn. That took a very sudden turn.

Kakashi simply gave him an uninterested look, "alright, you next." He looked at Sakura as a que.

The girl looked slightly taken aback but spoke. "My name is Haruno Sakura. For my likes… well… I mean who I like is…" the girl let out a squeal and I roll my eyes. "A-And my hobbies are… and my dream is…" the girl squealed again and I let out a groan of irritation.

"And your dislikes?" Asks Kakashi with a bored look.

"Erin and Naruto." She growls and I smirk. Naruto looks absolutely crushed.

"Whatever. Next." Kakashi says with a shrug. I immediately find myself in a staring contest with Sasuke. Neither of us want to go before the other. Both of us narrow our eyes in a challenge. I'm half aware of the uncomfortable silence from the others as we have our contest. There is an unspoken "whoever looks away has to go first". After about ten seconds I realize that I am stooping to his level and shrug.

"Whatever. I'll go next I suppose." I move my hands in a carefree expression and I can sense Sasuke seething. "My name is Latté Erin. I like dango, and several other things-"

"She also likes making other people's lives miserable." I hear Sakura mutter.

I continue, "I dislike shallow people." I cast the pink haired girl a side-eye. "And several other things. My hobbies are; reading, drawing, especially seals and dragons, training, and other stuff. As for my dreams? Hmm…"

'Find a way back home, not be on this team, manage to protect myself from the evil of this world, etc' I think briefly on what I will say next. "I want to become stronger." Naruto practically falls over.

"What kind of a dream is that!?" I shrug.

"You forgot to add the fact that one of your favourite hobbies is making things explode." Said Sasuke. Clearly expecting a reaction.

"Well, I'm not denying it." The boy bristles slightly.

Kakashi looks utterly unimpressed, "alright, last one."

Sasuke begins, "my name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't particularly "like" anything. I have many dislikes. My hobbies are none of your business." The boy pauses and adds darkly, "my ambition, that I do not intend to just leave as a dream, is the revival my clan. And to kill a certain someone." Everyone silently stares at him for a few moments.

"I hope that he doesn't mean me." Naruto whispers as he leans slightly towards me. I shrug, uninterested.

The group is broken out of the awkward silence when Kakashi speaks. "All of you seem to have interesting personalities. We have a mission tomorrow." Naruto immediately lightens with excitement.

"What kind of a mission, Kakashi-sensei!?"

"A survival exercise." The man answers in a slightly darker voice.

Sakura looks up in confusion, "a survival exercise? We already did a bunch of those in the academy!"

I roll my eyes and lean back, I guess I'll let this slip, just to seem smart. "It's probably some sort of test." Kakashi nods in approval.

"Yes. The test that you are taking has a sixty six percent failure rate. If you fail, you will be sent back to the academy." The group, minus myself, tenses. "That means that only nine, ten if your squad passes, of this year's class will actually make it to full shinobi."

Naruto looks absolutely outraged, "but we already passed the academy's test! You can't just send us back!" He stands and points at Kakashi. The man kept a bored look in his eye.

"That test was just to ween out those who were hopeless." Before any of us can respond he continues, "meet me at training ground three with all of your shinobi gear. At five in the morning. And my the way, don't eat any breakfast, or else you'll vomit. You are dismissed."

I let out a sigh as our new sensei disappears. I quickly stand and stretch. "See you guys tomorrow. I'm getting some dango and going home."

The group stares at me in amazement as I leave, without reacting to the whole test.

~0~

A/N: sorry for the late update! Had thanksgiving and stuff. I hope that you guys had a great weekend! Oh, and by the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY NARUTO UZUMAKI! Yay!

By the way, I'm bumping up Erin's future power level to maybe a little bit higher than Kage level.

Here's how the votes are going:

Snake:5

Scorpions:11

Peacocks:19

No summoning:3

Damn, that escalated quickly for the peacocks! This is your last week to place your vote before I announce the winner!


	22. Chapter 21

Chapter 21:

I roll over in my bed. I don't want to get up. I glance at the clock and abruptly sit up. It's seven. Wasn't I supposed to meet at training ground three at five? I jump out of bed, slightly thankful that I remembered to pack my gear yesterday. Now all I have to do is get dressed.

I pull on my ninja pants and quickly put on my mesh armour. Next I throw my moss green T-shirt over my shoulders. I tie my kunai holster to my right leg and grab my backpack. As I leave I slip on my boots. Not sandals. And grab my trench coat.

When I'm halfway down the hallway I do a full U-turn. I forgot my gloves. I did end up taking Ebisu's advice by buying gloves. But I decided not to get a mask since I always avoid bringing chakra to my head and face. It burns too much. I wouldn't ever be able to think or even see clearly. This brings me to a brand new topic.

I jump off of the apartments roof smoothly and easily. With almost no chakra. The new topic is a ridiculous weakness…

I stop for a minute to get a stick of dango… for breakfast.

The most dangerous opponent that I could ever face is…

I continue to jump until I see the three forms of my teammates…

A genjutsu user. That is my most dangerous opponent. Ebisu wanted to test my ability to fight back against it once. I collapsed. I didn't pass out but my legs gave out beneath me, because I couldn't handle the pain. Although his genjutsu only half-worked. I could see what was around me but it was foggy and overlapped with whatever the genjutsu was. It makes it difficult to decipher what's genjutsu and what's reality. Plus the ridiculous amount of pain I feel in my head.

I stop and silently watch my squad as they wait.

Ebisu said that if I was put against somebody of a high enough level, they could kill me. Very easily. Well, if they figured out how to, but it wouldn't be too difficult. Although it took me about ten seconds to gain control of the chakra that had been forced into my head. That's helpful, no matter how painful it is.

I finally jump and land directly in front of the group. I smirk when they all jump in surprise. "Erin! You're two hours late!" Shouts Naruto.

"Oops."

"Hey, didn't Kakashi-sensei say that we weren't supposed to eat breakfast?" Asks Sakura skeptically. I look down at the stick of dango in my right hand.

"Oops." I say before eating all of it in one bite. Sakura and Naruto gape at me. While Sasuke lets out an irritated sigh.

After recovering from the shock Sakura points an annoying finger at me. "Erin, sometimes I wonder why you aren't part of the Akimichi." She pauses, as if debating on finishing her statement. "No wonder you're so fat." I narrow my eyes and feel a flare of irritation.

I take a deep breath to calm myself. "I must inform you. I am not overweight. In fact, I only weigh just over one hundred pounds. Almost none of my body is made up of fat, mostly just muscle mass. And that leads me to the fact that muscle does in fact weigh more than body fat." I inhale for a brief break. "The only reason why you must perceive me as "fat" is because I have a different body type from most other women from Konoha. I am shorter and curvier, while you are taller and skinnier." I pause, giving her a side-eye. "And flat." The girl bristles while the two boys look slightly uncomfortable. "It is the same thing as my uncommon red hair and 'freckles'." I gesture to my spotted cheeks to make a point. Although I don't know the word for freckles here, they get the point. "Also, the Akimichi clan uses their weight for their fighting style. Whenever they use the expansion jutsu they lose weight. I wouldn't be able to do that due to how small I am compared to them."

The group looks almost completely dumbfounded. I let out a sigh and turn around. After a few seconds Naruto speaks. "Sakura-chan, I don't think that you should get into an argument with Erin. I think that she might speak better Japanese than you." Sakura lets out an annoyed squawk.

"Speaks better Japanese!? Have you even heard her stupid accent!?" What? That was uncalled for. I bristle with annoyance.

"Excuse me, but that was uncalled for. I haven't even live-"

"Yo." I stop mid-sentence as Kakashi walks up to our group. Naruto looks grateful for an excuse to change the subject and points a finger at the man.

"You're late again!" The man shrugs.

"I'm sorry. I just got lost on the road of life on the way here." I send him an unimpressed look.

"That's a dumb excuse." I state flatly.

"At least it's better than yours Erin!" I turn and glare at Sakura. She has already sent two jabs my way. And I'm getting sick of it.

"Sakura if you would kindly look to the sky…" the girl blinks in confusion but glanced up. "You can clearly see the number of shits that I give." She looks confused for a moment before looking furious.

I turn around to look at Kakashi. "Sakura-chan! We're all on the same team now! You shouldn't try to hit Erin!" I glance back to see Naruto desperately trying to hold the girl back.

I narrow my eyes and lift my chin with a cool expression. "Emphasis on "try"." I growl simply and Sakura almost throws Naruto off.

"Uh, guys." I look back up to see Kakashi waving his arms to try and get our attention. "Let me explain this survival exercise to you, you have to take these two bells…"

I completely ignore the man and continue to glare at Sakura. The others may not be able to tell but currently I'm royally pissed. I'd like to see her try and be sent into my world, learn English, and not have an accent within eight months.

I'm not denying the fact that I have an accent. I normally speak slightly slower than everyone else. I tend to switch up some ways of saying things. I'll say "no" in English. I also say "yes" differently. I greet people differently but it usually still gets their attention-

"Go!" I jump and look around furiously. Sakura and Sasuke have completely disappeared. Only Naruto and I stand in the clearing, along with Kakashi. The man looks around skeptically and before he can turn his head back to look at us, I flood my body with the correct amount of chakra. I'm gone within three seconds.

Within the branches of a tree, I see Kakashi blink in confusion when he sees Naruto still standing in front of him. I let out a sigh as the boy lets out a loud battle cry and runs at the man. I've warned him about doing things like that and how risky a move it is. But it seems as if he's beyond saving.

My disappointment abruptly disappears as soon as Kakashi's fist collides with Naruto. The boy turns into a puff of smoke. A small grin appears on my face as a stone which is behind Kakashi, suddenly becomes Naruto.

'Wow, you actually took my advice.' I think with a small amount of pride.

Despite the fact that he did things differently, Naruto still ends up in the river. I prepare for my course of action as I watch the boy and several shadow clones of himself jump out of the water.

He's about to engage in taijutsu…

One of his clones throw a punch…

Now!

Chakra spreads painfully through my chest and I switch with one of the clones. I smirk when I see Kakashi's eye widen with surprise.

"Leaf hurricane!" I skillfully spin in midair before slamming my foot down. Kakashi lets out a gasp and barely manages to block in time before my foot collides with his head. "Now Naruto!" I shout and the clones blink, dumbfounded. Before they run in to try and get the bells.

I quickly switch with another clone and find myself limping slightly. The leaf hurricane is one of the few moves that I picked up from Lee. I haven't focused very much on his form of taijutsu mainly because my body isn't built for it. This limp proves my point.

I back off slightly as I wait for my leg to not hurt as much. A clone try's to grab one of the bells which Kakashi currently has attached to his belt. He fail miserably when the jonin easily grabs his wrist and kicks him back. Sending him into several other clones with a puff of smoke. I silently watch as different Naruto's try and fail to get the bells. After a few minutes I test my right leg by putting weight on it. It seems like I can help now.

Chakra fills my veins again and I switch with a clone which is close to Kakashi's left. This should be his blind spot. And it's the side where the bells are. I bring my leg up for an axe kick but gasp in surprise when it's caught. I then let out a yell when I'm easily thrown back.

"Your light weight makes you faster but it sets you at a disadvantage when facing a larger and stronger opponent." Kakashi comments and I feel a flare of irritation. I've sparred with jonin before, I need to start taking him more seriously. I stand and focus more. I'm aware of the locations of Sasuke and Sakura among the trees. I'm aware that the real Naruto is currently coming up behind Kakashi. I'm aware of Kakashi's seemingly open stance. But in reality, even if somebody hit him at full force he couldn't be knocked down.

I'm about to move when suddenly Naruto appears again and tackles Kakashi from behind. "Everyone attack now!" The clones move in. Suddenly I let out a shocked gasp and throw my hands forward in a defensive position.

"Naruto w-wait!" The clones suddenly stop and stare at me in confusion and the real Naruto let's go. Kakashi has disappeared.

Naruto performs a hand sign and all of the clones disappear. "Where'd he go?" The blond asks, looking around. I shrug and suddenly see something shiny in the grass. I take a step toward the bell before remembering. 'This is a trap.' I step back and turn around. Focusing on finding Kakashi's chakra signature.

"GAH!" I hear a shout behind me and whip around. I abruptly send the boy who's currently dangling in midair an unimpressed look.

"Naruto, that was a trap."

"I KNOW THAT NOW!" He shouts and swings his arms madly. I smirk in amusement at the boy.

"Naruto, you should have seen that obvious trap like Erin!" I jump and turn my head to see Kakashi casually leaning against a tree and reading his book. I promptly back off, not willing to take him in myself and switch with a leaf among one of the branches with a tree. Once I'm hidden I watch as Kakashi looks around briefly before moving forward and taking the bell that still lay, untouched on the ground. Naruto flails and curses loudly at the jonin and I can hear a lecture being said.

I suddenly let out a gasp of surprise as many shuriken come from where Sasuke is currently hiding. The blades spin and hit the jonin dead-on. I briefly believe that he might actually be hurt before his body turns into a log. Kakashi has disappeared once again.

Sakura and a Sasuke's chakra signatures both move either trying to get away, or find Kakashi. I hop down from my perch and make my way towards Naruto. The blond hangs sadly and limply until he spots me.

"Erin! Get me down!" He swings his fists in the air. "I wanna give Kakashi-sensei a piece of my mind! I'll show him!"

I focus chakra to my feet and walk up the tree lazily. "Yeah, sure you will." I say sarcastically. I reach the branch that Naruto's hanging from and smoothly pull out a kunai and cut him down. He lets out a loud shout as he lands headfirst on the ground. I can't help give a short laugh as he's hanging in midair again.

"THAT BASTARD PUT DOWN ANOTHER TRAP!" I prepare to cut him down a second time. "WAIT! WAIT!" I pause to laugh again but freeze when I look up and see Kakashi on a branch above me.

Before he can act I switch with a blade of grass on the ground. "Erin! Why're you leaving me here!?" Naruto yells. I ignore him and narrow my eyes at Kakashi.

He's probably dealt with Sakura by now and wants to deal with me next.

I flex my hand before reaching for my kunai holster and grabbing a two kunai. I'm about to perform a trick that I've used on Ebisu several times. He says that it's a cheap move but it usually works. I smirk and stand up straight with a challenging look.

"So are you going to hide in the tree? Or are you going to fight me like a man?" Appear confident. Then your opponent can't take advantage of your stress level. Kakashi jumps down. Both of us are completely ignoring Naruto.

"That's something funny for an academy student to tell a jonin." He comments. Oh, you have no idea how not-confident I feel right now.

I throw my kunai at Kakashi for the beginning of my cheap move. As expected, he sidesteps the attack. "Erin, I thought that by now you would know that attacks like that aren't going to work on me-" he begins to lecture but I don't let him finish as I switch with the kunai which was currently almost directly behind him.

"Sensei, what was that about not letting your opponents get behind you?" I smart mouth before throwing my second kunai at his left side. Kakashi is forced to dodge. And that gives me the perfect opportunity. I switch with the second kunai and reach in midair. I grin as I feel a bell at the tips of my fingers. It jingles loudly as I try to grab it. But as quickly as I ended up in the perfect position, it, along with Kakashi is gone. I spin to regain my balance before landing. Where did he go?

I look;...left, ...right, ...up-

Down! I almost sense the chakra too late and jump just as hands emerge and clutch the air in my ankles absence. "Hai!" I grab a kunai and attache and explosive note before throwing it below me. Blood red flames explode on impact and I let out a gasp. I jog the few metres that were left between me and the spot where Kakashi is.

"Sensei! Are you alright?" I look down in the small crevasse that my explosion created in worry. Oh, that… little bitch. A log lays chard among the rubble and the small red flames that are leftover.

I jump when I hear a loud ringing coming from the training logs. I turn my head to see a blond tied tightly to one of the logs and a jonin beside him. Kakashi waves, "oh, I'm sorry Erin. I had to correct somebody who wasn't following orders." I send him an irritated glare and walk forward.

~0~

It doesn't take Sasuke and Sakura to show up. Sasuke's covered with dust. Both hung their heads slightly and soon we all stood in front of the logs. Well, Naruto's tied to one.

"All of you, fail."

"What!?" Sakura and Naruto cry in unison.

I give him an irritated look. "But you can't possibly expect us to get those bell. You're a jonin and we're just academy students." I complain despite the fact that I know full well what Kakashi's answer is going to be.

As expected the jonin reacts. "That isn't what this exercise is about!" He snaps, "this is obviously testing your teamwork and none of you seemed to pick up on that." I frown in confusion, I thought that what I was doing was teamwork with Naruto.

"Naruto, you immediately rushed at me without thinking at all. Sakura, you only thought about Sasuke even though Erin and Naruto were right in front of you. Sasuke, you immediately pinned the others as useless and decided to take me on yourself." The man pauses and glared at me. "And Erin, you simply used Naruto to your advantage. What you were doing wasn't teamwork. And when came I in between you and Naruto while he was helpless, you backed off. Rather than staying determined to help your comrade. That is a form of cowardice." I blink in surprise.

"Shinobi who don't obey the rules are trash. But shinobi who abandons their comrades… are worse than trash!"

I glance to my left. Sakura has a smirk on her face and Sasuke was simply watching me. I look to my right and Naruto looks slightly hurt. I was scolded the most out of everyone else. I look back at Kakashi who was clearly waiting for a reaction, from any of us.

"B-But with the bells! You pitted us against each other!" Sakura cries.

"That was another test." He puts a hand on his hip. "You may have stood a chance if all of you attacked me at once."

Sakura sees her chance and takes it. "If Erin didn't run away first!" This time I don't have any excuses. This time I don't have anytime by to prove her wrong. I look down at the ground in shame.

A shocked silence passes over my three teammates when I don't react. Kakashi moves on. "That is why you fail." I hear a yell and I glance up to see Sasuke pinned to the ground. He must have tried to charge Kakashi. But I don't care. "There are many different situations you may get stuck in. Such as; Sakura, kill Naruto now or Sasuke dies." To make a point he holds a kunai to the boys throat.

I look up at Sakura and narrow my eyes slightly in a challenge to even try to get ne'er Naruto. I'm confident that I can beat her. The girl lets out a panicked squeak and furiously looks in between Naruto and Sasuke. Kakashi suddenly stands and releases Sasuke.

He then looks solemnly at the stone behind us which is in front of us. "Many hero's names are engraved on this stone." He says with meaning.

Naruto suddenly looks excited. "That's where I want my name then! If that's where hero's names go!" Sakura shakes her head sadly.

"No you don't want your name there, Naruto." She says.

"Why not?"

I speak quietly, "because they are KIA. Killed in action."

Naruto's face falls and he looks down in shame. Kakashi nods, "many of these deaths are because of poor teamwork."

Eventually the man straightens. "I'll give you one more chance after lunch. But I have one rule, Naruto doesn't get to eat." He promptly disappears with a flurry of leaves and I numbly reach for my lunch.

I silently begin to eat. I shouldn't give Naruto food first, the others need to figure it out. I silently eat and after a few minutes I hear a voice. "Erin, are you alright."

"Yes." I answer Naruto simply, but I'm not. The same words are running through my head.

'Imacowardimacoweredimacoward.' "You know, Sasuke-kun touched the bells." I don't know why Sakura's trying to distract me while she partially added to it.

"Erin touched the bells too! I saw!" Cries Naruto in excitement, "it was so awesome! Right Erin?" I shrug slightly but nod. The conversation is abruptly cut off with a loud growling. Naruto blushes in embarrassment.

"Here." Sasuke holds his own food up.

"Sasuke-kun! You heard what Kakashi-sensei said! Naruto isn't supposed to eat!" Cries Sakura.

"Naruto is a member of our squad. We need him in top condition if we want to take on Kakashi-sensei." After a moment I hold up my lunch too. "Besides, it doesn't seem like he's around."

"I agree with Sasuke." Sakura looks down at her own lunch briefly, before holding it up.

"Sasuke! Erin! Sakura!" Naruto looks like he could cry out of happiness and he happily eats as we feed him.

After a few minutes a puff of smoke appears behind us. "YOU FOUR." I step back slightly and I hear Sakura scream. "Pass! 3" Kakashi adds cheerfully. There is a blank silence from each of us.

"What?" Asks Naruto in confusion. "But we went against your orders!"

"That's what you were supposed to do. Shinobi must look for meanings within meanings. And you four, just so happened to do that." He pauses, "tomorrow will be our first real mission, as a team!" Naruto and Sakura cheer. I take out a kunai and easily cut the ropes so that Naruto is free.

Looks like we made it. But I can't shake those awful thoughts. Do I deserve to be on team seven? Would I abandon my comrades if we were in a bad situation?

~0~

A/N: whew! It's finally finished! Soon will be the wave mission, and I'll warn you. You're gonna be surprised! *evil laughter*

We're finally announcing the winner of the votes! Erin's summoning animal will be peacocks! This will be the final decision, so please, don't try to change my mind.

Anyway the peacocks won't be in the story for a little while so don't expect them right away.


	23. Chapter 22

Chapter 22:

"Don't forget to brush that spot right there!" An elderly woman gestures to a spot that I was about to move onto. I narrow my eyes in irritation.

I open my mouth but before I can speak I spot a look from Kakashi. I begrudgingly close my mouth and brush the part of the fence that the woman gestured to.

"There! You're all done!" She says cheerfully and I can't help but roll my eyes. As we leave the woman stops each of us do give us a piece of candy for doing a "good job". I pause briefly when I follow behind last and the woman grasps my arm. "Oh, I forgot to give your blond friend some candy. Could you give it to him for me?"

I nod, "hn." I take the extra candy before walking away. "Hey Naruto." I don't give the boy a chance to react before throwing the candy just like a shuriken. He lets out a yell of surprise but doesn't bring his hands up in time. The candy hits him square in the forehead.

"Both of you act like little kids." Sigh Sakura and I give her a side eye.

"At least we don't whine like babies." Sakura glares at me until Sasuke "hn's" in agreement. Then her face turns bright red with embarrassment. I move on and look up at Kakashi. "What's our next mission for today, Sensei?"

"Hmm, let's see." He takes out a sheet of paper and looks at it thoughtfully, "it looks like a Tora mission." The whole group lets out a groan. There's at least one Tora mission each week. That cat just really hates its owner.

"Do you know where she should be?" Asks Sakura with a depressed note.

"I believe that she has been seen around training ground eleven." I let out a long sigh. I'm getting kind of sick of being the one of the villages gophers. But I suppose that it's more safe than going out on actual missions.

As we walk my mind drifts to the first and last time I was outside of the village. That was when some of Orochimaru's men kidnapped me and I met this guy named Suigetsu. I don't think that I could have escaped without his help. That week was the first time I had to actually hit someone. Well a lot of the time I didn't necessarily have to I just wanted to piss them off.

I pause in my thinking briefly to glance at my teammates. Sakura's trying to get Sasuke's attention, as per usual. While Naruto's trying to get Sakura's attention. Kakashi's leading in the front. Slowly but surely, half paying attention to his book. I roll my eyes and continue to walk slightly behind the rest of the group.

I close my eyes briefly and remember the first time that I used chakra…

'"Let go!" I screamed loudly as I pounded the man's chest. He simply ignored me as he jumped out of the window. Terror flooded through me. 'I can't afford to become a test subject!' I fought even harder. But nothing was working. Kicking, screaming, clawing, punching, biting, nothing was working. An awful feeling of hopelessness crept through me. But as we landed and I was jostled again I felt unnatural pain flood through my chest. 'No.' I wanted the pain to go away. I balled my hand into a tight fist and briefly watching in awe as the blood vessels that stretched along my hand became visible. 'I will NOT let myself be captured by Orochimaru.' Wisps of the black chakra radiated off of my hand. Before I twisted awkwardly and slammed my fist into the man's chest. Transferring the pain to him. The man let out a strangled scream and abruptly dropped me. I screamed myself as I freefell. Until something made of wood surrounded me…'

I then had to deal with Suigetsu for two more days. While being watched by Gaara's team.

That time outside of the village is what made me decide to become a shinobi. I realized that in this world only strong people survive. And are acknowledged…If I become strong enough, I plan on taking down whoever gets in the way of my success and my goals. Including Orochimaru. I have a score to settle for being kidnapped. But for now, I want to avoid as much trouble as possible

I wonder what Suigetsu's doing right now? Did he become one of the Seven Ninja Swordsman? I remember that he wanted to gather the blades and become the leader.

I still keep the dagger that he gave me in a small drawer in my room. I would use it but I feel like it's too pretty. A small amount of guilt gnaws in my stomach. He just decided to give me something and I didn't give anything in return. Well, I'll just have to make something. Something unique. I gaze thoughtfully to the right of the trail that we're following as I think.

"Whatcha thinking about?" I jump when I realize that Naruto has fallen back to walk beside me.

I shove my hands into my trench coat's pockets. "Nothing."

"I know for sure that you're thinking about something." He points, "you've got that look."

"What look?"

"THAT one!" I smirk at the boy's antics. Sometimes he's amusing to watch.

"I'D bet that she's thinking about a BOY!" My smirk abruptly drops and I glare at Sakura. Who has fallen back to walk beside us. Ever since we became official teammates she's decided that I should have a crush and/or a boyfriend. Because apparently almost fifteen is WAY too late to start dating.

"Eyeroll no jutsu." Is my only response and the girl looks slightly taken aback. "Look Naruto, I just came up with my own form of ninjutsu and it works!" Naruto immediately starts laughing. "This could be the handsign." I lift my hands up and position my fingers so it looks like I'm looking through goggles.

"That isn't a real hand sign." Now Sasuke has fallen back beside us.

"Shut up." I turn to face him as we walk. "I can absolutely assure you that this will probably work on a overpowered opponent." The boy lets out a "tch" sound and keeps walking.

~0~

Soon we reach the training ground and we stand in a circle. "Search the area. When one of us finds the target, inform the others."

"Hn." I adjust the speaker which is attached to my neck.

"Alright! Let's go!" I grimace when the speaker screeches loudly in my ear. The whole group clutched their heads.

"NARUTO!" Sakura yelled and hit him over the head. "TURN YOUR VOLUME DOWN." Naruto clutches his head while adjusting his speaker. I run at my ears slightly as they recover from the abuse.

"How's this?" The speaker isn't nearly as loud and I simply nod.

"Alright. Team seven, scatter!" On Kakashi's cue we all jump in different directions. Unlike the others, who move through the undergrowth I jump from tree to tree in my search. It doesn't take long before I hear my speaker crackle.

Sasuke's voice sounds, "target is within my vision."

"Copy that." I already know where Sasuke is. I can sense our whole squads chakra signatures. I adjust my course so that I'm heading in his direction.

"When the target is visible, use formation D." Kakashi orders. He wants us to block off Tora's escape roots.

"In position." I say quietly when I'm aware that I'm at the opposite side of the cat that Sasuke is. It takes a few minutes but I soon hear the others confirming their positions.

"Alright…" I flex my muscles at Kakashi's voice. "Go!" Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura jump out of the bushes surrounding the brown cat. It screeches in surprise and panic before promptly bolting right below my tree. I easily pounce and land directly on the cat. How ironic.

"I've got her!" I desperately try to gab Tora's scruff before she actually manages to hurt me. It's amazing that she hasn't, by the time I actually grabbed her and she went limp. I stand and hold her at arm's length away from me. "Naruto, you should try petting her." The cat hisses and spits loudly.

"No way! Ya know!" I smirk and wave her around in a dangerous fashion. Naruto and Sakura scream. Sasuke jumps back.

"Alright, you four. We have to bring her back to her owner." Kakashi sighs as he walks up to us.

"Dibs out on carrying her." I say, "I'm the one who caught her. You should carry her Sakura." The girl looks horrified, this is going to be funny.

~0~

It ended up that Naruto had to carry Tora. And all that I can say is that it was very amusing. But now I'm feeling very bad for the cat. Her owner is a middle aged woman who doesn't understand boundaries. As we walk away I glance back. To see the woman glomping the sad cat.

"It's awful, isn't it?" Says Sakura sadly, "if I was that cat I'd run away too." I let out a "Hn," of agreement. I don't know why, but I think that ever since our test, Sakura's been trying to make me her friend. I would but she sucks as a person and I'm petty. No thanks.

Where we're going now is the Hokage's office. To hand in our reports and get our missions for tomorrow. We'll reach there quickly, and I'm mostly ignoring the others conversations. As I glance around at the surrounding area. I'm aware of civilians staring our way and whispering. I steps don't waver as a spot a small boy either point at me or Naruto, who is walking alongside me. And asking his mother a question.

I look up at the sky and silently watch the clouds as I walk. I could really go for some dango right now…

Smack!

I run into something and clutch my head. "Erin! A shinobi is always supposed to be aware of their surroundings!"

"Sorry…"

"No that was my fault! I've been a genin for longer, so I should have seen you!" I stiffen at the voice… that's right, that voice, that chakra. I look up at Kabuto.

Alright Erin, pretend that you aren't freaking out. "Oh, it's you." He smiles at me even though I think that he's smart enough to catch the hostility.

"Erin, you know this guy?" Asks Naruto in a confused way. I glance at Sakura. Who is clearly making her own assumptions.

"Yeah, we met in a dango shop once." Kabuto answers for me. A small amount of panos goes through me. The group isn't supposed to meet Kabuto yet. I glance at Sasuke, who is looking at him skeptically. "So, you made it to genin?"

"Yes." I say flatly. I do not want to talk to him and he knows it. But he goes on.

"Too bad I haven't moved up a rank yet. Hey, who knows? Maybe we'll even take the chunin exams together." Again, bullshit. Just like last time. A small part of me just died a little on the inside.

"Maybe."

"Hey! If we are, team seven will totally kick your team's butt!" Naruto points at Kabuto dramatically. Please stop. You're all making it worse.

Kabuto laughs cheerfully, making me feel even worse. "Well then, good luck! But you know, it's rude to become rivals without even knowing each other's names." He holds out a hand to shake, I internally grimace. "I'm Yakushi Kabuto."

"Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Haruno Sakura!"

"Hn. Uchiha Sasuke." I think that I might be the only one who takes note of this. But Kabuto's eyes widen briefly at "Uchiha". But that might be what most people's reaction be.

I look at him begrudgingly. "Latté Erin." I then shake his hand. I don't think that he'd try anything yet.

"And that's Kakashi-sensei!" The man nods with his arms crossed.

"Anyway, we'd better hurry. We have our next missions to get." Kakashi explains casually. But there's an odd stiffness. Maybe he senses my distrust.

Kabuto waves and starts walking the other way. "See you guys!" Naruto waves back in a cheerful way with a grin on his face.

"He seemed nice." Naruto says as he turns back around.

"Yeah he seemed VERY nice. Right Erin?" I glare at Sakura. She thinks of Kabuto as a possible suitor for me. And I am not interested. I think that he's at least two years older than me.

"Shut up, Sakura."

~0~

"Can't we have a harder mission!?" I stiffen in my spot. I knew that this would eventually come. But I guess I had a small hope that it would never happen.

"Naruto! You're a genin. You're supposed to go on D-ranked missions!" Iruka snaps from his spot beside the Hokage. His job also involves assigning missions. I guess that that's also a chunin's job.

"Eh?"

"Naruto there are different kinds of missions. There's D-rank, C-rank, B-rank, A-rank, and S-rank. Different levels of shinobi take these missions. Genin take D-rank missions. And on the rare occasion they'll take C-rank missions. Chunin C-ranks and B-ranks. And so on." Kakashi explains casually like the good teacher that he is.

"Well D-rank missions suck! We should take a C-rank!" I feel like loudly protesting but I keep my mouth shut.

Iruka looks like he's about to protest for me but the Hokage speaks before him. "Well, I suppose why not? It would be a good experience." Iruka gapes at him and nobody notices but Sasuke and I share a look of amazement. Though I'm not very amazed. "In fact, I have a mission in mind. Iruka-sensei. Please hand Kakashi the scroll." Our old teacher hesitantly stands and meets our new teacher to give him the scroll.

"Your mission will be in The Land of Waves. So you'll have to pack warm clothes." Kakashi nods as he skims through the scroll. "You will be guarding a bridge builder until he is finished with his construction." My stomach sinks slightly. And I was having a decent day.

"Alright! Our first C-rank! Ya know!" Naruto pumps a fist in the air excitedly. Sakura looks slightly nervous.

"So are we going to meet our client there or…?" She asks. I know the answer already.

"Oh, you're going to escort him from Konoha. You may as well meet him now." The Hokage nods to one of the ANBU guards who nods and disappears with a puff of smoke.

Within a few minutes a middle aged man walks through the door. A bottle of sake in hand. He looks like a mess. Just what I expected. His immediate reaction is what I expected as well. "These brats are going to be my guards!?" He looks angry and I roll my eyes. Whatever Tazuna. This is what happens when you write your mission as a lower rank than it actually is so that you don't have to pay as much. You don't get to have a stupid trash opinion.

"Team seven, this is Tazuna-san. The man who you will be guarding." The Hokage explains.

"I don't trust my life in any of these brats hands. Especially those two!" He points at Naruto and I. "The blond looks dumb and the girl looks devious!" I wonder if it's my freckles? I raise a hand and touch my cheek. Or maybe it's just my judging stare.

Kakashi doesn't react to any of the man's insults. Which is pretty impressive. "We will meet you at the front gates tomorrow at eight O'clock sharp. See you then." He then without another word walks past him and soon the rest of us follow. Naruto makes a face at him and I can't help but smirk.

Once we reach outside we all go our separate ways. "Erin! Wanna walk home together?" Naruto asks.

"Sorry Naruto, I want to train before going home today."

"Oh, alright." He seems slightly disappointed but I just nod at him before walking away.

I don't get far before somebody falls in beside me. I glance up to see Kakashi walking casually. Once he knows that I've noticed that he's there he speaks. "You were suspicious of Kabuto." So he did catch it. I nod.

Now, how do explain how I'm suspicious without giving myself away? "Well… his chakra, is suspicious. And he seems awfully nosey." I explain, hoping that that's good a enough and feel a small amount of relief when he nods.

"I can tell that he ran into you on purpose. I know that he's been a shinobi for a long time. His father works at the hospital."

"Hn. He asked personal questions the first time that we met." Kakashi gave me a "go on" look. "He seemed to already know about my ranking as an academy student. And he was fairly curious about my sealing."

"He also asked everyone's names. He seems interested in specifically you and Sasuke." Damn Kakashi, you're a shinobi that's feared by nations for a reason. I look to the left to see the dango shop. It looks like Kabuto had also conveniently placed himself where I would most likely go next. Kakashi watches skeptically, "it looks like it hasn't snowed yet. But we'd better watch the clouds." Hidden meaning: be prepared for anything and keep an eye out.

"Hn." Now we go our separate ways. Instead of my original plan I go straight to the training grounds.

Good. Now I have an ally…

Now I need to come up with an explosive that can beat Haku's ice. Without destroying the entire bridge.


	24. Chapter 23

A/N: hey guys! I'm skipping the special chapter this time because I have something in mind in the near future!

~0~

Chapter 23:

"Is your sensei usually this late?"

I let out an enormous yawn, "yes." I actually got here on time today, you'd think that for a mission Kakashi would do the same thing. But apparently not. I sigh and look down at my stick of dango in my hand. "It's unfair. It's too early in the morning for me to eat and not feel nauseated." I complain. I, like many other teenagers struggle with nausea in the mornings when I eat. That's why I don't usually eat until later.

"Whatever Erin, I'm starting to wonder if you live off of that stuff." Answers Sakura and Sasuke grunts in agreement. The girl's face goes pink when her crush reacts.

I lift a single hand up and move it to a goggle position. "Eyeroll no jutsu." Sakura stares at me in confusion. "It worked." I state flatly.

"No it didn't, cha!"

I shrug as I speak next, "well I managed to get you to be quiet for a couple of seconds so yes. It worked."

"Haha! Burn!" Naruto cries as he laughs.

"Shut up, Naruto!" The boy deflates

"All of you are idiots."

"Whatever Sasuke. Nobody cares."

"I can't believe that they assigned these brats to guard me…"

~0~

Wow, Kakashi only came an hour late today. That's a record.

Currently we're walking down the rode in a protective formation. But Tazuna is completely unaware. I walk slightly ahead along with Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura are slightly behind, and Kakashi is walking alongside the old man.

I casually take out the bingo book that I asked to borrow from Kakashi and flip through the pages and stop it at Zabuza's identification. Anxiety floods through my stomach and I slightly feel like throwing up. I don't have a plan on how to beat him. I just need to hope that Kakashi can deal with him on his own. Maybe through the next few fights I can just guard Tazuna and I'll be fine. I glance back. But I don't want to be categorized with Sakura as the weak one who needs protection.

I sigh and flip the pages a little more until it lands on Itachi Uchiha. If there isn't anything I can do to deal with the current enemy, I may as well look into one of the next. Itachi is literally the worst person that I could ever be matched up against in a fight. You can be caught in a genjutsu by just making eye contact and I don't even know what else he can do. But, I suppose that if he wanted to kill me with genjutsu he'd have to figure out that he even could within ten seconds. But something tells me that he could.

At least I'm not underestimating him.

Hmm, didn't Gai read his movements by his feet? I don't know if I could do that. But, it just so happens that when I'm sparring or fighting with someone, I tend to watch their fists. Or I'll have my eyes on where I'm aiming for. So I might not get caught in genjutsu but loose in some other humiliating way.

I stiffen. I sense chakra signatures. Not just two like I was expecting, three. I blink in confusion, in the anime there were only two enemies who would attack. This may be just another group… or maybe in the anime there's a third person who simply watches that we don't know about?

'What's going on?' I look back at the others, none of them are sensory types…

'Three chakra signatures 10 O'clock, possible enemies approach with caution.' I sign to the others and there is an immediate change in the air. One of the basics in the academy is learning sign language. Each hidden village has one. Right now Tazuna doesn't know what I just told the others but he can sense that something's wrong.

"Hey brat! What's going on!?" The old man snaps at me but I ignore him. I pocket my book and allow my right hand to twitch towards my kunai holster. "Hey!" He snaps again in irritation.

"Tazuna-san, please be quiet. Erin's trying to focus." I am. I'm focussing strictly on the signatures… I put all of my attention in while Kakashi quietly explains to Tazuna.

'Three males, all shinobi.' The air gets even more tense and I glance back. 'Keep cover.' I'm telling them not to give away the fact that we know that they're there. Kakashi nods with approval, clearly I'm handling this correctly.

But he doesn't know how much I'm mentally panicking. This isn't following the storyline and I don't like it. These guys aren't even on the road. I'm starting to wonder if their completely different people. Maybe they don't even work with Zabuza? If none of them are the two who attacked in the anime, that means that I'll have to be far more careful. I won't know their fighting style.

We're almost at the point where we'll pass by their hiding place in the trees… I stiffen, we've passed them. Maybe they have some other target who will come down this way-

I whip around when I hear the familiar whizz of shuriken being thrown. "Team seven! Formation D!" This is the same thing as what we did with Tora but this is for defence. I stand with my back to Tazuna holding a kunai defensively. Since we've already passed the small group I'm at the front. I watch carefully from the corner of my eye as Naruto and Sakura furiously deflect each and every shuriken.

"Naruto, Sakura, are you two alright?" I ask I know that Sasuke's fine. He's guarding the front with me.

"Yeah! Believe it!"

"Urr-umm, uh, yes!" Sakura answers nervously. She's clearly shocked about what just happened.

I crane my head to see Kakashi standing between us and three men who look to be in their mid-twenties… none of them are from the anime.

I stiffen when one of the men speaks and reaches for the hilt of a tanto which is strapped to his back. "Hand over the old man or we'll have to cut all of you down." He says with a smirk. Translation: hand over the old man or else we'll kill you. I tighten my grip on my kunai and adjust my feet so I'm in a more well-balanced backstance.

"I apologize." Kakashi says cheerfully just to piss them off. If he keeps this up eventually he probably will get all of us killed. It may not be today but someday… "we've been hired to guard Tazuna-san so unfortunately we can't just "hand him over"." Oh no.

The man's smirk turns into a grin and he speaks, "that's too bad." He glances over at a beefier man, "I guess it looks like you get what you want." At that, the group rushes forward toward our protective square. One tries to go after Kakashi but he doesn't last very long. I mean he lasts about half a second before he's pinned to the ground.

The other two continue towards us without missing a beat at their fallen comrade. The one who was speaking before ran at Naruto who is already prepared and readies himself to block. But as soon as the man reaches him he does a shoulder roll and is now attacking me.

I let out a gasp, unprepared and when I attempt to block his tanto the blade slides down my kunai. Cutting my arm painfully. Briefly, I stare at the blood in shock. Feeling sick, I've never been cut this badly before.

Clearly the man notices my disgust, "a kunoichi with a fear of blood? Typical." He raises his tanto to attack again but my anger from his comment snaps me out of my trance. And I just so happen to notice how ridiculously open his stance is. I flex my leg muscles.

As the tanto goes down towards my head I drop into a submissive stance and throw my left hand protectively above my forehead. "Wait!" I cry with fake desperation and fear. And guess what?

He freaking stops. The idiot.

"What's wrong girly? A little sca-"

What happens next seems almost seems to happen in slow motion. I don't say another word as I lift my right leg in the most powerful chakra inforced front kick that I have ever done. the tanto, which was approximately three centimetres from the top of my head is abruptly dropped as the man man abruptly moves his hands to his groin with a pained scream. He drops to his knees right in front of me and I whip around with a powerful spinning hook kick. It hits him hard in the head and he drops to the side with a loud thump. He doesn't even bother to clutch his head as he curls into himself in pain.

"YAY ERIN! YOU SHOWED HIM!" Naruto cheers and practically jumps up and down I turn around to see that Kakashi and Sasuke had assisted Sakura in defeating the beefy man who now lays on the ground. "Did you guys see that!? Erin just destroyed that guy! Believe it!" I smirk and look down at the pained man.

I can feel Naruto's enthusiasm rubbing off on me. And I don't care as I crouch down to be closer to the man's level. "Maybe if you're lucky you can still have children." I gloat and the man lets out a moan and rolls over.

"Erin, you don't gloat at your fallen enemies." Kakashi says with scorn.

"But Kakashi-sensei! You didn't hear what he said to her!"

"That doesn't matter. You shouldn't stoop to his level." I shrug and turn from my victim, "alright, we should move on." The entire group shares confused looks.

"But sensei, are we simply going to leave them here?" I ask with uncertainty, it doesn't make sense to move on without doing anything. It just gives them another chance to attack us.

Kakashi stops walking and turns to look at me with his single showing eye. "Well, what do you want us to do? Kill them?" My eyes widen and I glance back at the beaten enemies. The beefy man is desperately trying to stand back up at Kakashi's mention of "killing". The other two simply stare at us with wide eyes.

I look back at Kakashi, he has an actual questioning look. He's waiting for an answer. I look at the others. Sasuke looks like he doesn't care. Sakura and Naruto blink at me with wide eyes. Tazuna gives me a skeptical look. I silently turn back towards our enemies. The man that I have beaten… he actually looks… afraid. My eyes narrow in my thought. Should we kill them? It would make sure that they can't report to whoever they're working for. If we kill them now they won't be able to bother us again. Besides, they were planning to kill us.

I look deeper into the eyes. Wide with fear. Afraid of what a fourteen year old girl will choose. Afraid of me. A sudden feeling of shock sweeps through me. No. Thinking of other humans like this is bad. Killing people because it's the easiest solution is bad. "No." I finally answer my sensei, "but we should at least tie them up before we leave." It seems as if a breath is released from both allies and enemies. Kakashi nods at me.

A sharp pain reminds me of something. "Oh, and by the way, I need my arm bandaged." I hold said arm up to show the blood dripping.

"Erin!? Why didn't you say something!?" Snaps Sakura as she rushes over with bandages while Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke move to tie the fallen men up.

~0~

Once we left the men who despite being silent before, cursed at us loudly and shouted threats. I almost turned back around but Kakashi had sent me a threatening look.

Currently we're about to move onto a boat so we can make it to the town undetected. But currently Kakashi has other plans.

"Tazuna-san, do you have any idea as to why those men were after you?" The old man jumps at his name, he's been acting nervous ever since we left those men. I think that he was hoping that we would move on without asking any questions. But unfortunately for him, life isn't that simple.

He glances at each of us nervously, "no. No I don't." Bullshit. This guy sucks at lying.

Kakashi is obviously aware of the lie and casually rests his weight on one leg. "Well, even if you didn't know about your attackers, this mission is definitely higher than C-rank. At least B-rank or even possibly A-rank." I know where he's getting at before he even says the words, "I thought that we could at least bring you to the outside of your village before going back to Konoha." The statement sends a wave of shock through everyone except for me.

"But Kakashi-sensei! We could definitely keep on going!" Cries Naruto.

"Naruto, this mission could put our lives at stake." I say and hold up my now bandaged right arm for an example. The boy immediately cringes slightly at my arms weaker than usual movement. I know, I know. This mission is important for Naruto and Sasuke's growth as people. But I need to think of myself and my own safety as well.

"Yeah, this could be dangerous!" I feel grateful for Sakura backing me up. I nod at her briefly.

Both Naruto and Sasuke look slightly disappointed but comply when Kakashi leads us to turn around. I walk silently behind Kakashi, feeling a significant amount of stress lifting off of me and I let out a sigh. Everything's going to be fine.

"W-Wait!" I jump and turn around to see Tazuna desperately running after us. Oh no. "Please! I admit that I did lie to you! But, I don't have the money to pay for a B-ranked mission. But please, my family-no. My entire village is at stake!" The old man looks like he's about to cry. I'm aware of the familiar shiny look of tears, but I don't react.

The man continues, voice beginning to shake. "If you five leave me here without a guard there's no doubt that I'll be killed! Please understand, my village NEEDS this bridge!" I glance over at the others, my teammates seem moved by his words. But I can't get a reading from Kakashi. The jonin simply stands, watching Tazuna. "In my village, a man named Gato has taken complete control of everything. If I build this bridge, we won't have to rely on him anymore." He begs, "he wants me dead. So that the entire wave country can't be independent!"

"People are… suffering?" Murmurs Naruto uncertainly, great. I can tell that he wants to do it.

Tazuna sees his chance and takes it, "yes! Women, children, everyone! Some days we have to go without food!" The air of the group abruptly changes with the twelve year olds urge to help somebody in need.

"Kakashi-sensei! We can't just leave him!" Cries Naruto furiously.

"For once I agree with Naruto! Besides, we handled the last guys just fine!" I let out a sigh and cross my arms as Sakura speaks.

"Hn." Stress and anxiety rise through my stomach and into my chest.

Kakashi raises a hand up to his mask with a thoughtful "hmm". "Well… are you guys sure? There's no doubt that they'll send somebody who's stronger than the last few." Why is he even considering this? I need to shut this down. Quickly.

"Yeah we could totally-"

I promptly interrupt Naruto. "But what about our pay? If we continue this mission, we'll most likely lose more money than what we make." The others send me utterly confused expressions. Of course I actually agree with my point. There is absolutely no way that I'm going to do an A-ranked mission at the price of a C-rank.

"What do you mean?" Asks Naruto, with genuine confusion. Oh, he actually needs me to explain exactly why I mean to understand my point.

Time for some math. "Alright, imagine that you have twenty kunai in front of you." I almost laugh when Naruto actually closes his eyes. "Imagine that Tazuna said that this mission would need only five kunai and will pay you back ten kunai from doing it. That means that after this mission, you should have at least twenty five kunai."

The other three genin stare at me curiously, currently I'm explaining business to them. "But, if later in the mission you find out that you will actually need ten kunai or maybe even fifteen or twenty. Then you don't gain anything, do you?"

"Oh… I get it." States Naruto thoughtfully, but after a few seconds his face regains his furious and stubborn look. Oh no. The boy aggressively points at me and speaks, "but it isn't about the money! It's about helping people. ya know!? Didn't you become a shinobi to help people!?" My eyes widen at his accusation. I don't say it, but no. No I did not become a shinobi to help people. I became a shinobi to become strong so I can defend myself.

The other two who had become uncertain at my words, became certain once again at Naruto's. "Let's do it!" Cries Sakura with excitement. Sasuke "hn's" again with agreement. Shit.

I cross my arms and let out a puff of air. "Whatever. But I'm expecting that you'll owe me debt for whatever rank of a mission this is." I growl and gesture to Tazuna.

"Alright, let's go." Kakashi says casually as he steps towards the small boat which has conveniently just arrived.

I follow the others silently but mentally, an awful feeling of dread settles in my chest. Making it difficult to breath.

~0~

A/N: I'm so sorry for the late update! I've had a bunch of homework and I haven't had the time to get this chapter done!

ALSO GUYS GUESS WHAT I'M A DOG MOM NOW!

Anyway, do you guys have any cool ideas for pairings for Erin? I already have somebody in mind but I want to see who you guys could come up with.


	25. Chapter 24

Chapter 24:

"Alright, so if we want to be prepared if more men attack again, you'll need more training." I nod, trying my best to control the tension that I feel. We're already at Tazuna's home. Nothing has happened. No attack from a certain one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. No attack from anyone. Nada, absolutely nothing bad has happened so far. And this scares me.

I'm scared, and I'm trying my best to hide it. I'm aware of the stress and paranoia trapped in my chest. I should be happy that nothing bad has happened. But it just adds more distress. I don't know what's going to happen. The lack of the control that I have in the situation makes it worse.

Now I'm wondering, what happened to Zabuza and Haku? Did it have something to do with me? If so how did I make that change? What are the biggest changes that I have made in the plot? I don't know what I have done other than catch Orochimaru's eye and joining team seven.

"Erin! Are you coming!?" I jump and turn around to see Sakura trying to get my attention as she stands in the doorway.

"Oh-yes." I stand and silently follow. I jog slightly to catch up with the others. Soon we reach the front of the house. This village is the strangest thing that I have ever seen.

I look around with a small amount of wonder at the floating village. Small wooden bridges connect everything, allowing a very closely knit community. I glance back at the island which we were dropped off. That's most likely where we'll be training and it's also where the market is. This place is pretty cool but I would never live here by choice. I don't like the unstable wooden structures and one of my biggest fears is drowning. Drowning and suffocating. Not to mention that this place is poor. I look ahead and spot three orphans depressingly sitting on a bridge. The only thing that I like about this place is how chilly it is.

It reminds me of home, in Canada. The others clearly aren't enjoying the cold weather. Sasuke and Sakura run at their bear arms to try to generate heat. Despite wearing a jumpsuit,Naruto curls into himself. Kakashi doesn't show any signs outwardly, but I can feel that he's using more chakra than usual to stay warm. Me? Actually I'm far more comfortable in this weather than in Konoha. Instead of wearing my full trench coat as gloves, I would simply wear my violet tank top with mesh armour beneath, but I'm far too paranoid for that right now. I'm dressed in my full gear along with my boots (not sandals) and kunai holster.

A realization hits me, I jog slightly to walk alongside Kakashi. I cough to get his attention but he doesn't immediately react. After a few seconds, I finally decide to speak, "Sensei?"

"Hmm?" Wow.

"What are you teaching us? Is it tree climbing?" I ask, Kakashi blinks his showing eye and looks down at me.

"Yes, you guessed quickly." He comments casually. "Why do you ask?"

"Well…" I say awkwardly, I wonder what he'll get me to do instead? "I already know how to do that." Kakashi looks genuinely surprised, but I feel as if he should already know that I can do that.

"Hmm, I suppose that you can wait for me back at Tazuna's home. I have something for you to do." I nod and promptly ninja jump back, over the others and begin walking back.

"Show off!" I hear Sakura yell and I glance back to see the other three genin struggling to keep their balance on the bow rocking bridge. I turn back around and throw my hand up in a small wave, ignoring the shouting behind me.

~0~

I sit in front of our clients home. Resting my sketchbook on my crossed legs and holding my pencil in my right hand. Ready to start working. I glance down at my smaller storage seals. I'm going to use them as a reference.

I look forward for a moment and allow myself to focus on the water. Small waves lap at the rotting wood.

Kakashi is still out with the others and I'm still waiting. I let out a tired sigh and bring my pencil closer to the paper. Only to abruptly jump and pull it away as I feel a new chakra signature appear in my sensing radios. I look to my right only to see a civilian child playing across the water. I let out another sigh and finally begin writing English letters in a circular pattern.

I'm in the middle of writing an A when somebody speaks. "That's really pretty. What is it?" I look down at my messed up A in irritation before looking back up at Tazuna's daughter. Tsunami.

"It's a storage seal." I state flatly and the woman pauses.

"Oh that's interesting. I guess that shinobi like you would need seals like that to hold their supplies." Why is she even talking to me?

I smirk at what I'm about to say, "well I actually was planning on using this seal to store an enormous boulder. Then in a fight I could launch it at them and crush them like insects. Then I would also put a seal on it so that it would explode." My explanation got the exact reaction that I was looking for. The woman looks slightly horrified and takes a small step away from me. "But yeah, storing supplies would work too." I say with a shrug.

Tsunami looks utterly dumbfounded, "well umm, good luck with that. I need to go inside and sweep." She says before promptly retreating into her home.

I continue to smirk and turn back to my work. The messed up A was definitely worth that reaction. "I would advise that you shouldn't terrorize our clients. But I'm not sure if you would listen." Oops.

I look up at Kakashi, "of course you show up up when that happens." I state with sarcasm, "sorry, that I got caught." The man let's out a sigh.

"Get up, I'll show you what you'll be learning." I nod and seal away my supplies before standing. I expect that we'll be moving somewhere else for my trading but Kakashi casually just steps off of the floating wood and onto the water. I almost run forward to stop him but then I realize that in this world, people can literally walk on water. "You'll be learning water walking. Now, just focus your chakra to your feet like tree climbing and step onto the water." He explains and I blink in confusion.

"I'm gonna what now?" I ask and look nervously down at the almost black abyss below me. Like I said before, one of my biggest fears is drowning. I indeed can swim but if I fell into THIS water specifically, I don't know how cold it is and if it's cold enough it can make my muscles freeze up for a few seconds and by then I don't know how far I would've sank and the water is very dark and I would loose sense of direction and I'm done talking about this now.

Kakashi sighs and looks at me boredly. "Just focus your chakra to your feet and step onto the water." He pauses and gives me an odd look, "why? Is there something wrong."

"Oh! Umm-no." I say awkwardly but continue to stare down at the waves.

"Then come on." I almost flinch but allow the necessary amount of burning chakra to flood into my chest and down through my legs. Within a few seconds, it's reached the bottoms of my feet. I pause, still staring at the water, "Erin." I let out an exasperated sigh and shuffle forward so that my toes are at the edge of the wooden platform.

"Are you going to step out or are you just going to stare at the water all day?"

"Tch." I do a half step forward so that if it doesn't work I can pull myself out. I abruptly jump back and let out an embarrassing squeak when the water touches my foot and practically explodes away.

"You put too much chakra into it. Try again." Kakashi says calmly, waiting. An idea comes into my mind and I simply sit on the edge. "Erin, step out or else I'll drag you out." My sensei says with irritation now.

"Just a second. I have an idea." I say, I pull a small amount of chakra away from my feet before placing both of them down firmly. This time the water doesn't explode but foams beneath my boots. I continue to put in less and less chakra until small ripples form beneath my feet. That's the best that I can do without sinking. The same thing happens with tree climbing. No matter how hard I try, my chakra always does damage. "Alright." I say nervously before slowly putting on more weight onto my feet. Then I finally stand and cautiously step forward.

"Hmm, I guess that your way of learning is both faster and more efficient. I wonder why nobody's come up with that before?" Comments Kakashi as I carefully force myself to keep walking forward. Going against the laws of physics in just so… wrong.

I wobble slightly as I struggle to keep my balance because of the small waves. Alright, I can do this. My eyes suddenly widen when I hear the familiar sound of a kunai being thrown and shout. Without thinking, I dive forwards. Halfway down I realize something. I done goofed. I desperately try to bring chakra to my hands in time but it's far too late. It takes my chakra about two to five seconds for me to gain control. I plunge face first into the black water with a shriek which is promptly muffled by the water.

I float in complete darkness for a brief moment, before my instincts kick in and I swim in the direction which I think is up. Luckily for me, I swam in the right direction and break the surface. I cough as I choke on the water which I inhaled and swim to the rotten wood quickly.

After I finally finish coughing I look up and glare at the silver haired jonin. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" I snap and stand up.

"I wanted to test something."

"WELL DID YOU GET THE ANSWERS THAT YOU WANTED BECAUSE I SURE DIDN'T ENJOY IT VERY MUCH!?" I'm royally pissed. He could tell that the water was freaking me out and yet decided that he should perform a "test".

"Well, I definitely got answers." He says with a shrug and walked off of the water and stepped onto the wooden platform which keeps Tazuna's home afloat. "Keep practicing, water walking should be second nature for all shinobi. I'll be in the house if you need any advice."

I stare at him angrily as he just leaves. Stupid Kakashi and his stupid tests and his stupid and cruel sense of humour and the stupid throwing of kunai and I could've died.

I freeze briefly when I realize that we have a similar sense of humour. Oh shit, I actually have a scary amount of things in common with him. I don't know if I want to have anything in common with him other than being a total badass.

All that I know is that someday I will have my vengeance. And it will be sweet.

~0~

A/N: hey! Sorry about the short chapter, next week I plan on making it longer!

Anyway I made a drawing of Erin which will be this story's cover photo! I'd be totally be cool with it if you guys made fan art! Maybe I would use your art for the cover!

Also, there will soon be an explanation as to why Zabuza and Haku haven't shown up. But believe me that they will have who I think is an even stronger opponent to fight! *evil laughter* you're gonna be surprised!

Hmm, actually when you think about it young Kakashi and Erin are actually very alike. Of course Erin has more friends and everything but in case you haven't noticed they're normally pursuing her. If they never talked to her Erin wouldn't care nor try to build a relationship. The difference between her and Kakashi is that she won't just ignore somebody.


	26. Chapter 25

Chapter 25:

I run across the water smoothly. This is my second day of training and I've almost completely mastered water walking. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura don't know that I can do this yet but Kakashi's told me that Sakura is almost ready to move on. And he wants me to teach her. I've learnt now to keep a small amount of extra chakra ready for my hands in case I fall.

But right now I'm still practicing. I haven't left Tazuna's home yet but I think that he wants to go to the market today. Currently I'm in charge of guarding the household. I think that I'm doing a pretty good job. Inari basically just sulks around so he's easy to keep track of, Tsunami mostly just stays in the house, and Tazuna will go out to visit somebody who lives nearby every so often. But I can still sense him. I mentally keep track of who's in my sensing range. Whenever somebody new comes around I'll briefly check to make sure that they're civilian.

I stop running begin one of my old forms from Tae Kwon Do. Underblock. Hammerfist. Turn, Underblock. Hammerfist. Turn, Side-body. Side-body. Front kick-backfist-side body. Front kick-backfist-side-body. Front step-back fist. Turn-

"Oi! Erin!"

'Yes sir!' I answer automatically in English as I turn around and stand at attention. Just to see Kakashi giving me a confused look while Sakura stares at me in wonder. I abruptly feel heat flushing my cheeks with embarrassment and I awkwardly scratch at the back of my head.I guess that I'm in Tae Kwon Do mode right now. "Eh, what is it?" I ask quietly and feel even more heat rush into my face.

Kakashi promptly switches back to his regular, bored stature. "Tazuna-san wants to go to the market and you and Sakura are going to guard him." I nod and walk towards them, as I step onto the wood I allow my chakra to move back towards my chest. Leaving the necklace which only I'm aware of, warm. I let out a small sigh as the tension that chakra creates leaves my body. "After he's finished I want you to teach Sakura how to water walk."

"Hn." I answer simply before promptly searching out Tazuna's chakra signature and walking into the house. I pause with the door still half open. "Are you coming, Sakura?"

"Oh, yeah!" She answers quickly before following after me. Once we get in I find a wall and casually lean against it.

"Tazuna-san, we're going to escort you when you go to the market." I greet the man who's sitting at the table as if he had been talking to Tsunami while she cleaned. He turns to me with a raised brow and crosses his arms stubbornly.

"Just you two girls!? Not your Sensei?" I narrow my eyes and cross my arms in my own irritation.

"Yes. Do you have a problem?" Sakura looks between us nervously with both of her hands on her chest. "Of course if you think that we're under qualified we could just-"

"No! No, I'm happy with you two." I smirk, I've won this battle.

I nod and move from my place against the wall. "Are you ready to go then?"

"Yeah, just a second." Tazuna huffs and stands from his seat. "We should be back in a couple of hours." He directs his last sentence to his daughter who glances at me but nods. I think that I've planted a seed of fear within this family. I don't know if that's good or bad. I silently wait while Tazuna grabs a small bag which probably has his money in it. That's all that he's bringing? I blink at the small wallet skeptically and subconsciously shove a hand into my trench coat's pocket to feel the seal that I keep my money in.

I'm given a monthly allowance plus my pay for missions. I wonder how much money Tazuna's family makes? I know that they definitely have more money than the majority of the citizens. We've been here for three days and two nights. They've been feeding us full and healthy breakfasts and dinners. We've, or at least, I've been simply eating food pills instead of lunch since I've been training. Food pills will give someone the nutrients that they need but won't make them too full to perform properly. If only they didn't taste so bitter…

"Erin, now you're the one who's holding us up!" I blink in surprise and turn to see the others waiting at the door. Both Sakura and Tazuna have irritated expressions and I feel slightly embarrassed.

I quickly follow the others as we leave. We soon get off of the bridges and onto dry land. I feel relief flood through me when there isn't any more rocking beneath me. I look up at Tazuna, there's been a question that I've wanted to ask him for a while. "Hey Tazuna-san?"

"What is it?" He asks grumpily and I immediately feel irritated.

I roll my shoulders and keep my voice cool, "why didn't you just hire some shinobi from Kirigakure? They're closer to wave country than Konohagakure." Tazuna stiffens but continues to walk, I'm aware of Sakura's curiosity spiking beside me.

"Well… uh," the man answers hesitantly while I listen intently. His answer might help explain why we haven't seen Zabuza and Haku. "Lately, there has been a lot of political unrest within Kiri. I've heard that they're looking for a new Mizukage." I raise my brows. A new Mizukage… that could change an awful lot for all of the hidden villages.

Tazuna now speaks with a lowered voice and Sakura and I have to lean in slightly to hear everything that he's saying. "I've heard that they're trying to rebuild the Seven Ninja Swordsman." Huh, is Suigetsu succeeding in his dream? Maybe that's why Zabuza currently isn't here. It might have to do with rebuilding the Seven Ninja Swordsman.

"But that sounds almost impossible! Didn't almost all of the swords end up being taken away from Kiri!?" Asks Sakura.

"Well I wouldn't be surprised if they succeeded in getting them back. I've heard that Kiri isn't a village that you should mess with." I say with my mind still on Suigetsu. Did he somehow manage to change something?

~0~

As we walk through the market a silence falls between our group. All of the shops barely have anything and I try my best to ignore the beggars on the streets. I end up making eye contact with someone and promptly drop my gaze.

"There's barely anything in the shops…" Sakura points out the obvious but I simply nod in agreement.

"Gato's company taxes everyone far too much so farmers can't buy seeds and livestock. Plus beneath his company he deals drugs so there is an awful lot of gang violence here. Not to mention that we're separated from the mainland. That's why I, and several other citizens are building this bridge." I "Hn," in acknowledgment as I try my best to take everything in. But there isn't very much. Except for the woman who seems to be cornered by a man…

Alarms abruptly sound off in my mind at the sight of a young woman backed up against a wall by a middle aged man. I narrow my eyes as he moves and places his arm around her in what some people may call a "seductive" way. No, that woman looks terrified and the man's hand looks very close to her breast. I glance around, nobody else is seeing this. Or at least they're pretending not to see it.

"Sakura." I say quietly to get the pink haired girl's attention, this woman needs help. Right now.

"Hmm?" The girl's green eyes turn towards me curiously and I gesture towards the pair. Once Sakura spots them I see her stiffen. She's just about as angry and disgusted by this as I am. I nod at her and we widen our stride, and leave Tazuna a couple of metres behind us.

"Hey." I growl, making the man turn around along with the terrified girl. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" The woman is looking at us as if we're her savours.

The man's disgusting face contorts with anger and I feel my hand twitch towards my kunai holster. "This has nothing to do with you brats! Leave us alone." By now several people have stopped and are silently watching but aren't making a move to help either side. "She's my girlfriend." The women stares at Sakura and I pleadingly as the man's hand is still near her breast.

I feel anger flood through me and can't keep my voice from shaking. "Well-" I let out a gasp of surprise as Sakura makes a move. Punching the man right in the chest and to my amazement, sends him flying approximately four metres backwards.

"IT'S RUDE TO TOUCH A WOMAN WITHOUT HER PERMISSION! CHA!" Sakura clenches her fist and I can see blood vessels bulging from her flexed muscles which seemed to come out of nowhere. Holy shit. The man quickly crawls back onto his feet before promptly bolting away. This is definitely a "she's our friend and she's crazy!" moment.

"Y-Yeah! You better leave women alone from now on!" I call to the man who is still running. But it clearly doesn't have the same effect as Sakura's punch. A few people who had gathered clap at Sakura's efforts and I can't help but feel a little bit jealous. I wanted to do something badass.

The woman who we just saved turns to us and bows lowly. "Thank you so much. I was really scared." I look at her closely, she looks like she's my age or maybe even a year or two older. She has the basic side character look with simple brown eyes and brown hair. She actually looks similar to a younger version of Minami. Minami also has the side character look except for her bright green eyes.

I snap back out of my thought process as an older woman hurriedly forced her way through the crowd. I can see the relief on her face as she finally reaches us and grips the young woman's arm. "Finally I found you! I was so worried!" She pulls the younger woman into a hug and strokes her hair, "with everything that's been happening lately you can't just wander off like that. Don't scare your mother!" I raise a brow, I wonder if she'll tell her mother about the incident that just took place.

"Sorry, I got lost! But these shinobi helped me." She lies quickly and sends us another pleading look. I can understand why she wouldn't want to her mother to know what just happened.

"Well, thank you for looking out for my daughter." She reaches out as if to pat our heads but stops herself, clearly remembering that we're shinobi.

"It's no problem, Ms." answers Sakura casually and I "hn," in agreement. I suppose that I'm willing to keep the fellow female's secret. The two bow once more before moving in their way. Sakura has a faint smile on her face. "Wasn't it so sweet how worried the mom was about her daughter? It reminded me of my parents. If they don't know where I am they completely FREAK." I start to walk, only half aware of Tazuna following slightly behind.

"Yeah, I guess that it was sweet." I say with a shrug, unable to relate. "But what bothers me is that she has a reason to worry." I add with a darker note.

Sakura blinks at me in confusion at my lack of emotion, before nodding with agreement. "That man was disgusting. I can't believe that some people are like that!"

"Hn!"

~0~

So you'd think that after dealing with one pervert we'd be done. But NO of course not. Our group quietly picks out some of the few vegetables in a shop. The majority of these are low quality and I can't help but crinkle my nose slightly as I try to pick out the best ones. I'm starting to realize how lucky I am that I woke up in one of the larger nations. When you think about it, unless smaller nations like this have a very large amount of an important resource, they're going to be poor. A realization hits me. Small countries must be caught in the crossfire of many wars between the larger nations.

"Tazuna-sa-" I stop talking when I feel something GRAB MY ASS. I whip around and find myself facing a man who looks to be in his twenties with a disgusting smirk on his face. I can tell that he did that completely in purpose. "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME YOU PERVERTED PIECE OF SHIT!" I snarl and the man opens his mouth to speak but I punch him in the throat. He chokes and grabs his neck. I then give him a hard kick in the balls. He moves his hands to his groin and drops to his knees. Then I spin around and knock him backwards with a back side kick to the chest.

I don't even pause for a second when I jump forwards and pin him to the ground with a hand on his throats and a knee planted on his chest. "What is wrong with the men here!? Seriously!?" I direct my question to Tazuna who now has walked behind me along with Sakura. I look down at the terrified and shocked man. I wonder how scary it is to find out that the girl that you just tried to grope is a shinobi?

He stares at me wide eyed, "I-I'm sorry if I knew that you were a shinobi-"

"YOU SHOULDN'T DO THAT TO ANYONE, PRICK!" I interrupt angrily, "you should respect everyone that you meet!" I allow myself to calm down slightly.

"Erin-san, you're making a scene…" I hear Tazuna say hesitantly behind me, "he was raised this way, maybe you can show him a little bit of mercy…?" My fury flares up once again.

"Does this look like the face of mercy to you!?" I snap and tighten my grip on the man's throat. I look down and let out a small sigh, "you got lucky this time but next time… I could try testing some new explosive seals." I then step off of the man who quickly crawls to his feet and bolts. Similar to how the middle aged man from earlier did.

"Let's grab the things that you need and get going." I turn and growl at Tazuna who flusteredly turns around and pays for the food. He then turns to lead the way back. I'm aware of Sakura and Tazuna's now tense mood though I don't really care. I suppose that my be-

Wow I'm just being cut off like crazy today. But nobody else notices the flare of chakra on the roof of one of the shops. I almost choke, there's such a large amount of it. It feels so overwhelming and I almost wonder if this is tailed beast chakra. I turn my head to try and find where the source of the chakra is coming from. But as quickly as it appeared it's gone. Poof, it disappeared. When I look at the roof I see nothing like whatever it was, was never there. I blink in confusion and consider investigating.

I glance at the others who are completely oblivious. Should I tell them…? No. I don't want to bring more anxiety than I need to. When we get back I'll tell Kakashi. But still… what exactly was that?

~0~

"So, I just run onto the water?" Asks Sakura nervously as she looks down at the water.

"Yes." I lie smoothly from my spot, I just want to have a little bit of fun. "That's how it worked for me." The girl hesitantly continues to look down at the clearly cold water.

After a few seconds she gives a determined nod and runs into the water, plunging straight down. This is probably the most hilarious thing that I have seen. "ERIN! YOU LIED!" Sakura screams as she breaks the surface and I burst into laughter. "YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THIS! CHA!"

Uh oh.

~0~

A/N: hello everyone! I think that this chapter was a little bit sloppy, I'm sorry.

Anyways, I've decided that for personality wise Erin is an INTJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging). An INTJ is the rarest personality type in our general population, they only take up about 2% in total. And they only take up about 1% of women. The INTJ is considered the "mastermind". For the majority of the time Erin is having a deep thought process and is a big problem solver. When Erin decides to put her mind to something she'll know everything about it. She's also always looking to improve her own skills and add to her arsenal of knowledge.

Erin is seen as reserved and serious. Until you get to know her, then she has a little bit of personality. Whenever somebody asks her a question she will think through it very carefully before giving an answer. Erin is confident about most of her knowledge and normally expects others to see her perspective. But, if somebody else shares an opinion or fact that doesn't make sense Erin is not worried about pointing that out.

Checked out the internet, apparently Kakashi's an INTJ? The same with Itachi but I think that he might be an INFJ?

Anyway, can you guys guess who the enemy for the big fight is gonna be? *evil laughter*


	27. Chapter 26

Chapter 26:

"Hey Erin?"

"Hmm?" I look up from my sketch at Sakura who stands on the water. Only leaving small ripples instead of the foaming bubbles that I make. I'm a little bit jealous.

"Yesterday you were doing a special kind of taijutsu, and I was wondering if you could show me." I blink in surprise, why would she want to learn from me?

"Are you sure?" I ask uncertainly. I'm not even sure if I want to teach her, I feel like Tae Kwon Do is my thing…

Sakura nods with determination and I let out a sigh, "the rest of team seven is already far ahead of me! I want to catch up!" So that's what this is about. She feels like she's behind.

I let out another sigh and stand, Sakura doesn't seem to notice but I wince when I put weight onto my feet. I noticed that the bottoms of my feet are starting to become dark blue and purple from bruises this morning. This must be what happens when I leave chakra in a certain area for too long. Alas, I force chakra into my burning feet once again as I step out onto the water.

"Alright, I guess that I'll teach you some of it…"

"Thank you Erin! It's just that all of you guys have some special technique and I don't have anything to add to the team right now!" Cries Sakura with excitement and she brings her hands up to her chest in her usual fashion. I look at her worriedly, I hope that she'll eventually come up with her own special fighting style. If she just asks me to help her… I don't think that she would be suited for my current fighting style.

Wait a minute… am I even going to stick with my "hit and run" strategy? I want to be able to actually do damage. Eventually I'm going to want something like Naruto's rasengan or Sasuke's chidori.

"Erin!" Sakura snaps her fingers in my face to regain my attention, oops.

"Oh umm, well I'm guessing that you already know the basic blocks." I show Sakura the first three that I was taught. Underblock, bodyblock, faceblock. The girl nods. "Alright. What about palm blocks?"

"Hmm, not really. They only teach basics at the academy."

"Hn, I'll show you. Come at me with a punch. But uhh, don't actually, you know-hit me." I say awkwardly and get into a ready position. Sakura nods before coming at me with a clearly light punch. I smoothly step to the side and redirect the blow away from me. I move my leg so that I can easily sweep her legs out from under her. But I stop right before. I then let go and step back. "It's all about using your opponent's speed, size, and strength against them. If you came at me at full speed and strength your power would easily become my power and you would hit the ground, hard." Sakura listens intently and nods along as I explain.

"I'll come at you next, and I'll correct any mistakes that you make." I say, I'm now more comfortable with my teaching skills.

We work on Tae Kwon Do for several hours. Every so often I stop to explain a new concept to Sakura who listens intently. Eventually Tsunami comes from within the house.

"Dinner's ready!" I drop my hands mid punch and nod.

"Let's go." I jog back to the docks fm step up onto the rotten wood. I easily walk forward until I allow the chakra at the bottoms on my feet return to my chest. I draw in a sharp intake of air at the awful pain in my feet. Though the only thing that Sakura sees is me stumbling slightly before regaining my balance. Luckily she doesn't say a thing because if she asked if I was ok I'm not sure if I could even answer. As I enter the small house nobody can tell the level of pain that I'm in as I sit at the table.

"Yo." Kakashi greets from his spot at the table, I immediately notice that Naruto, Sasuke and Tazuna are missing. Reading my mind Kakashi answers, "Naruto, Sasuke and Tazuna-san are just on their way back from the construction sight." Oh, that's right. Tazuna started working on the bridge today. Naruto and Sasuke needed a break from their intense training so they watched Tazuna for the day. But I'm wondering why Kakashi isn't with the three because I'm not sure if they can handle themselves if somebody attacks.

The second I think it, guilt gnaws in my stomach for underestimating the two boys. If Kakashi trusts them to guard the old man then they're definitely capable of it. He trusted Sakura and I. Unless he was secretly watching us.

Last night I didn't get the chance to catch Kakashi alone so that I could tell him about the sudden overwhelming chakra which appeared. But tonight I'm more determined. I'm getting the feeling that we're being watched and I don't like it.

I note everything within the small main room. Walls, roof, floor, cabinets, all made of wood and completely normal. The stove is fine, and come to think of it, how do they even get electricity here? That's a question for another day. I look at each of the people surrounding the table. Tsunami seems normal, her chakra is fine and she has her usual quiet and shy behaviour. Inari seems fine, though I haven't payed very much attention to him throughout our stay. He's sulking in his spot. Sakura has been with me all day. I look at Kakashi, he hasn't been with me all day. In fact, how did he get into the house without me noticing? It could have been a simple teleportation jutsu but I remember him leaving with Tazuna, Naruto, and Sasuke. Why would he leave them?

I carefully watch the "Kakashi" who sits across from me. His chakra seems normal. He's acting normal. Despite that warning bells sound in my head. I glance at the oblivious Sakura who sits beside me. She's closer to Kakashi than me.

One test, "hey sensei, have you been watching the clouds lately?" I ask casually. Translation: have you been watching Kabuto? Kakashi blinks at me for a moment, "I think that it will be safe to go outside without the worry of snow for now." Translation: nothing's new on my part.

He looks confused for a moment, "well of course we don't need to worry about snow. It's the middle of summer." I narrow my eyes, wrong answer. He doesn't know what I'm talking about. My right hand twitches towards one of my many explosive tags.

"True." I reply coolly as I attach the explosive seal to one of my kunai, I'll give him one more chance. "But last week it was really cloudy." Translation: remember our conversation last week? The man still seems confused. I can see Sakura stiffening in her spot. She may not know what I'm talking about but she knows that I'm sensing something wrong with Kakashi's answers.

"That was probably just rain clouds." I narrow my eyes and pocket my explosive kunai. I have to get him outside before I can use it. Instead I grab a regular kunai and skillfully through it right beside his head. "Kakashi's" eyes widen with surprise and I see a couple of his hairs drop due to being sliced off of his head. "Kakashi" laughs nervously, "wh-what are you doing, Erin?"

Sakura stands and slams her hands on the table. I recognize the intimidation tactic immediately and I watch as everyone other than myself jumps at the loud sound that it makes. "We know that you're a fake! Cha!" Tsunami promptly grabs Inari before running upstairs, leaving us with the fake.

After a few seconds the fake finally stands up and I can tell that he's smirking beneath Kakashi's mask. "How did you guess?" He asks curiously, his calm demeanor makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. We're dealing with somebody who's obviously on a higher level than us. Clearly, Sakura doesn't know how we guessed so she looks at me expectantly.

Instead of explaining, I hold up two kunai and sink into a sparring stance. Ready to attack and ready to block. I would spend five minutes explaining my thought process but I don't want to waste any time. When I run forward I go for his right. I want to force him outside so I can use my explosives. Sakura guesses my thoughts and simply goes for the man's front. The fake gets into a stance and tries to keep a single eye on both of us at once. Clearly this is too difficult because in the time that it takes for Sakura and I to reach him he lifts his fake konoha headband to allow his other eye to see.

My legs folter slightly when I see his other eye. The skin that was just revealed is pure white and the eye is a pale green and pupil-less. Still once I'm close enough, I use my momentum to give my flying side kick power. The bad thing is that the guys sidesteps it and grabs my arm once I land.

My eyes widen, 'oh shit' but before he can do anything else Sakura rushes in with an almighty "CHA" to save the day. I watch as the fake is forced to let go of me to avoid Sakura's kunai. Good, he's a couple of feet closer to the doorway…

But he's still at a higher level than us. Not to mention that he's physically larger than us and we don't even know what jutsu's he's got up his sleeve. He pulls out his own kunai before rushing at Sakura. Sakura gasps and barely manages to block. But due to the fact that she was unprepared the kunai slid and cut her hand. I can tell that the fake is still smirking beneath his mask. Anger floods through me at the fact that an adult man is willing to harm a twelve year old girl. Sakura jumps back and grimaces in pain as she clutches her bleeding hand. On reflex, I allow some of my burning chakra to flow throughout my body, other than my head.

"Back off." I growl without thinking and pull out my explosive kunai, "or else I'll set this off and it will kill all three of us." Wait, what? I didn't mean that.

"Are you sure? I don't think that such a small explosive tag could kill all three of us." The man's voice has changed now, instead of Kakashi's usual bored tone it seems more cheerful and lighthearted. That makes it even more freaky. He moves out of his fighting stance and stands confidently in his spot. He clearly thinks that I won't do it.

"That's true, this one might be too small but the other ones that she has on her will go off in a chain reaction." Sakura backs me up and the fake looks at her curiously. He isn't taking either of us seriously. When I think about it, yes. I do absolutely have more than enough explosives to take all three of us down. In fact, if all of them went off there would be a good chance that many of the houses would go down as well.

I hold up the kunai threateningly, daring him to try me. After a staring contest that feel like it lasts for hours but probably only lasted for a couple of seconds, the man lets out a sigh and pockets his kunai. "Well, I suppose that I have no choice but to retreat for now…" he says before beginning to- SINK INTO THE GROUND! Halfway down he lifts his arms in a shrug, "though I'm surprised that I a couple of brats just forced me to back down…"

As his head sinks down I practically gape at the spectacle, "Leader-sama isn't going to be happy about my failing to get a…" his voice fades away. I don't know weather to be impressed or terrified.

At that moment Kakashi and the others decide to make their entrance and I ready my kunai once again and glare at them suspiciously. Kakashi immediately spots the kunai that's still imbedded in the wall from when I launched it at the fake.

"What happened?" He promptly asks while the other three blink at us in confusion. He takes a step forward and Sakura and I stiffen.

"Sensei, have you been watching the clouds lately?" I repeat my question from before and this time Kakashi doesn't even pause.

"Yes, but it doesn't look like it will snow anytime soon." I let out a sigh of relief and drop my hand. I don't test the others because Kakashi has probably been with them all day.

"There was this guy! He tried to pretend that he was you but Erin caught him! We attacked him but it ended up that Erin talked him into backing down! A-And then he just sank into the ground, it was so weird!" Sakura explains furiously and I feel myself blush slightly at the praise.

"It wasn't just me. If Sakura wasn't here I would have been in trouble."

"An enemy was in here?" Asks Sasuke curiously and both Sakura and I nod.

"And you guys got to fight him!?" Asks Naruto jealously as he crosses his arms with an unimpressed expression. With that the boys launch into a series of questions which is eventually interrupted by Tazuna.

"Where are Tsunami and Inari!" The old man cries worriedly.

"They went to hide upstairs." As if on cue the two run downstairs and run to Tazuna.

I turn back to Kakashi who pulls the kunai out of the wall before handing it to me. "Was there anything distinctive about my counterpart?" He asks seriously.

"Well, I suppose that he didn't bother to transform your other eye, since when he lifted it the skin was white and his eye was green-"

"Unless that's what you look like, Kakashi-sensei!" I can't help but shoot a glare when Sakura interrupts me.

"Other than that his voice sounded almost cheerful." I continue to explain while Naruto and Sasuke walk over to listen. "He didn't take either of us seriously, even when I threatened to make the entire house explode."

"You WHAT!?" Cries Naruto but I ignore him.

"He was talking about how his leader would be upset that he didn't get something… but I don't know what it is."

Kakashi lifts his hand to his chin thoughtfully, "hmm, maybe he was trying to get a hostage. I'm sure that if he caught Inari-san or Tsunami-san he could have used them as bargaining tools." We nod along as he explains and starts noting things that we'll have to do.

After a while Tsunami interrupts, "well, we may as well eat our dinner. Thank you two for going out of your way not to spill anything." Not to brag or anything but when you look around the only signs of our short fight is the mark that my kunai left on the wall. We all agree before sitting down and quietly eating.

"From now on I want training and guarding to be switched hourly, starting tomorrow. Erin and Sakura will accompany Tazuna-san for the morning and Sakura will guard and train here for the afternoon. Erin, in the afternoon I want you to meet me in the small wooded area on the island. Sasuke, in the morning you can guard here while Naruto trains."

"Hn," we all say in agreement, though I'm wondering what Kakashi has to teach me. We continue to silently eat until Inari decides to break the silence.

"Why!? Why are you guys doing this!? You're all going to die." He snaps and stands from his place and I blink at him in surprise. "That guy will probably just come back and next time you guys will lose! All of you are idiots!" I narrow my eyes, nobody asked for his opinion and nobody cares.

"We're shinobi, it's our job." Kakashi says simply and oh my god I just realized that he managed to eat his entire meal without anyone else noticing. I could have just taken the chance to see his face. I almost forget about Inari before he speaks again.

"But you guys are acting like heroes! Those don't exist in this world!" I'm finding this brat fairly annoying. I take a sip of my water and ignore him.

"Shinobi are heroes!" Naruto defends and I find myself even more irritated. "Especially the Hokage! That's what I'm gonna be!"

"I don't even think that you'll last that long! All of you are going to die!"

"Inari-"

"Well technically all of us will die eventually. No matter what we do." I say quietly before putting more food into my mouth.

I realize that I made a mistake now that Inari's wrath is directed towards me. "But all of you act like you can help all of us! When you can't!" He cries at me but I don't take any of his words seriously. When I glance at him I can see tears streaming down his cheeks but I don't react. I look at Naruto expectantly and I can see him clenching his fists in anger. Wait for it…

Naruto stands and snaps at the boy. "Shut up you big baby!" There it is. Inari looks taken aback. "Only babies cry like they're helpless like that! There ARE heroes in this world and I'm one of them!" A tense silence follows before Inari turns and runs up the stairs.

I stand from my spot and stretch, "well, I'm going to bed now." I then turn around and leave the dumbfounded group behind.

And guess what? I don't go to comfort Inari I actually get ready for bed. It may look like I don't care on the outside but deep, deep, down… I still don't care.

~0~

It doesn't take very long for my teammates to join me in the small spare room. Kakashi gets his own room even though I think that it would be a better idea for the guys to share a room. But that's none of my business. So we all are in our sleeping bags, girls on one side, guys on the other. I'm about to fall asleep when…

"Psst! Sakura-chan!"

"What is it Naruto?" A voice growled grumpily.

"Did you guys really fight that fake Kakashi?"

"Yeah we did, it was super scary!"

"Both of you…" Sasuke and I whisper in perfect unison, "SHUT UP!"

"Erin, you better not be trying to just impress Sasuke by saying the same thing at the same time!"

"I'm not even close to interested in Sasuke, he smells like hatred and revenge anyways!"

~0~

A/N: team seven at its finest, lol! Hey guys would you look at the "subtle" hints that I dropped for who Erin's dealing with on this mission!

By the way, I've started a new fanfic called How to Reincarnate if you guys wanna check it out!


	28. Chapter 27

A/N: I'm so sorry! This chapter is so late! I had homework and stuff! But thanks for being patient while waiting for this chapter! I present you with chapter 27!

Chapter 27:

"Erin! Get up!" I groan and roll over in my sleeping bag as my younger teammates yell at me.

"Come on Erin. You can't be serious." I'm aware of Sakura kneeling down before shaking me. I pull the covers over my head and mumble. "Tazuna wants to leave in twenty minutes! You haven't even gotten out of bed yet, and you still have to get dressed, brush your teeth, AND eat breakfast!" I ignore her and bury myself deeper into my sleeping bag as I try my best to savour the warmth.

"Come on Erin!" Naruto grabs onto the edge of my blankets and tries to pull them off. But he doesn't stand a chance against my death grip and he ends up just dragging me across the floor. "Shadow clone jutsu!" Now there are three Naruto's trying to pry the blankets off of me. It isn't working out very well though.

After a while they give up. But I can still hear suspicious whispering as I stubbornly close my eyes.

"Three! Two! One!"

"Huh-?" I choke as weight lands right on my stomach. I… can't breath…

As quickly as it lands it's gone. "Do you think that that did the trick?" I hear Naruto ask skeptically.

I silently sit up. Well, I do my best to silently sit up while I'm coughing and choking uncomfortably.

"Erin! Are you getting up now?" I hear Sakura's voice sound to my left.

"You three…" I growl viciously as I reach for my kunai holster. "...Are dead!" I whip several kunai at their heads, successfully shaving off some of their hairs. Yes. I am blaming all of them.

Sakura and Naruto scream as I grab my entire holster and stand. Before I know it all three are running down the stairs. Sasuke isn't screaming like the others but he's smart enough to know exactly how pissed off I am. I begin running after them but stumble after a couple of steps. From my spot on the ground I look at my feet and feel sick to my stomach. They're bruised so badly…

Green and purple colour the bottoms of my pained feet.

Ignoring it, I take a deep breath and stand. I promptly slip on my boots to hide the bruises before running after my teammates. I ignore the pain as I run down the stairs and outside after the twelve year olds.

"Good to know that you're finally awake." Comments Kakashi as I run past but I ignore him. I quickly reach the door and immediately spot bright orange to my left. It looks like Naruto's trying to creep toward the door.

"Gah! Guys, Erin's actually coming!" The boy shrieks before running the opposite direction.

I give chase and pull out an explosive kunai. I keep chasing until I can get a clear shot of the trio. I stop for a moment and ready my kunai. Some may believe that what I'm about to do is overkill. But I strongly believe in both of the terms "don't dish it out if you can't take it," and "go big or go home,". So what do you think you get when you mix those two terms together?

Chakra floods through my chest and down by bare right arm. It actually looks pretty awesome. The way that the blood vessel appear and fade away as my black chakra passes through. The chakra lingers in my hand for a moment before spreading to the kunai knife.

The timer begins in my seal.

3…

I throw my kunai, not quite at my teammates. But in between them.

2…

The explosive has almost reached them…

1…

Now it has finally reached the three. Sasuke somehow manages to spot it and within a blink of an eye a log has taken his place. This leaves Naruto and Sakura to deal with the explosive. It goes off and the impressive blast sends the two screaming into the water. Aqua flames linger on the rotten wood for a moment before going out.

Satisfied, I turn back around and walk towards the house while I can hear the two struggling in the water.

~0~

Well… Guarding Tazuna at the bridge wasn't very eventful. Except for how at one point I completely showed up his workers by lifting more weight than them. I don't think that I've ever seen adult men more embarrassed. It just shows the enormous difference between the physical fitness of a civilian compared to a shinobi.

I nod at Sasuke and Naruto as they come to take their shifts. "They're here, let's go." I tell Sakura as I hop from my perch. Before walking forward I wave at Kakashi who has his face buried in a book. I don't know how he saw me but he waves back. I don't have to worry about him coming with me because he's using shadow clones to keep track of all of us. As we walk past each other Naruto enthusiastically holds out a hand for a high five which I participate in. I simply give Sasuke a small nod.

I don't see it but I know that Sakura blushes when she passes by Sasuke who probably ignores her.

We quickly make our exit and after that Sakura and I quickly separate. Soon after we separate I see the island's shore but I'm too lazy to walk anymore on the bridges so I take a shortcut and simply run across the water.

It doesn't take me long to find the small wooded area which Kakashi told me about and I easily spot him lounging on one of the tree branches. "Oh, you're here." He comments as he sits up.

"What are you going to teach me?" I ask curiously as he jumps down.

"I'm going to teach you some basic elemental ninjutsu." He says casually like it isn't a big deal.

I can't help but allow a grin of excitement appear on my face. "Really!?" Now Kakashi looks amused and I run a hand through my hair in embarrassment.

"Yes. Yesterday when you caught my counterpart, part of the reason why you didn't catch him was because you don't know anything that could cause harm to a high level shinobi than using your explosives." I nod as he explains, "and of course you can't use your explosives within a small space without injuring yourself as well as your enemy. The ninjutsu that I'm going to teach you will be stronger based on exactly how much chakra you put into them."

"Hn," I continue to nod, this is actually very exciting. What is he going to teach me?

"Don't forget, elemental ninjutsu is far more difficult than almost any other ninjutsu. Normally people don't start learning them until they're chunin. The only reason why I'm teaching you now is because you're ahead of the others. And you're older." He lectures and I roll my eyes. He sounds an awful lot like Ebisu right now. "Erin, are you still listening?"

"Yes."

"Good, I'll show you the first jutsu." He says and begins running through hand signs. Slowly, so I can follow. I watch in amazement when I see electricity sparking from his hands. "This is a jutsu that medic-nins use to restart hearts. But that doesn't mean that it feels nice for perfectly healthy people." He explains.

"Now you try."

"Alright…" I say as I begin running through hand signs…

~0~

It's been five weeks now since I started working on elemental ninjutsu…

I've actually learned three. This is unnaturally fast. I am sure of it. I've come to the conclusion now that I am a full on prodigy. But I can't forget that these are very simple elemental ninjutsu.

Anyway, I know one lightning release, one earth release, and one fire release. I'm working on water right now. And I have come to the conclusion that absolutely none of the jutsu that I have learned so far are my chakra affinity. Even if I learn them quickly it doesn't feel natural. So if none of these are my chakra nature… That means that I have wind chakra. But of course I'm learning one of those last.

Hehe, apparently chunin need to know two when they become jounin. Right now I know three…

"Erin, shouldn't you be practicing?" Kakashi asks from the top of his tree.

"Oh, umm, yeah." I look down at one of the many water bottles in front of me. Since water isn't my chakra nature I have to be near the water for this to work. I run through hand signs, "water release: hidden in the mist jutsu!" Nothing happens. Even when I flare my chakra. I let out a sigh of frustration.

"Can't we just skip-"

"No." I let out another sigh and glare down at the water bottles. Out of all of the other jutsu that I've learned so far I was expecting this one to be the easiest. Apparently not. It's just that he wants me to make my chakra spread through the air and into the water. That doesn't make sense. How am eye supposed to control my chakra if it isn't in my body-?

Oh.

"Sensei, I have an idea." I state an allow a small amount of chakra to flood throughout my body.

"Well, go ahead." He prompts, looking over. Alright. This might be difficult. I run through hand signs.

"Water release: hidden in the mist jutsu!" But instead of working to allow my chakra to spread out to the water bottles a clone forms beside me. Because of the fact that it's just a regular clone and not a shadow clone it doesn't move. That's the advantages of shadow clones, they adopt the personality of the original and they can move and attack on their own. If somebody put enough chakra into them they could even perform jutsu of their own. It's actually amazing that Naruto could learn a jutsu as complex as that.

Anyway, once my clone stands beside me I clamp my hands into a basic focussing seal. I close my eyes. I can feel my own chakra beside me. I imagine the way that I can move it around my body. And manipulate. I can feel my face twitch in focuss. I attempt to move my chakra but nothing happens.

'Come on!'

Comeoncomeoncomeon! I try to flare the chakra beside me again. Nothing happens. I feel a small bead of sweat drip down my right cheek. A headache waves through my head.

"Erin, don't overexert yourself. You have a habit of-"

"Hn!" I feel the chakra disband beside me. Though I can still feel it in the air. I flare it again and manipulate it into the water bottles. I blink open my eyes and watch in amazement as mist lifts and surrounds me. "Yes!" I can't help but cry in excitement. I pump a fist in the air but suddenly find myself soaked. The jutsu just cancelled. I look up at Kakashi who has barely managed to shield his precious book from the water. It's hilarious. He's completely soaked and his usual gravity-defying hair droops.

Kakashi stands from his spot and jumps down. "Well that was impressive." He comments. A wave of exhaustion hits me and I feel my shoulders drop.

"Heh, yeah."

Kakashi kneels down before sealing all of the water bottles away. "I'm going to get more water. You rest here."

I walk and collapse against a tree, "alright." He nods and disappears into the trees. I still feel his chakra signature as he reaches the water. I close my eyes and lean back. I can't believe that I didn't think of something like that sooner. Clones. All I needed to do was start using clones. Who knew right?

I blink in surprise when I feel a couple of chakra signatures coming into my range. Their running towards me. I stand and narrow my eyes at the trees and wait. They seem to be children, two males.

They reach me within a few minutes. As I suspected, two young boys. "H-Hey! You're the shinobi who can walk on water right!?" I narrow my eyes but nod. "We need your help now! Our friend's drowning!" I blink in surprise as waves of concern sweeps through me. I glance back at where Kakashi disappeared into the trees… I feel like I shouldn't leave without him at least knowing…

"Come on! We don't have very much time! Hurry!" The other boy grabs onto hem of my still soaked trench coat and pulls. That's right. If somebody's drowning we don't have enough time to go to Kakashi for help and/or permission.

"Alright. Show me." The boys immediately start running at full speed through the trees and I follow.

We reach the edge of some docks within a few minutes and to my dismay, I don't see anything in the water. "Where is he!?" I ask furiously and look harder from the edge.

"I-I don't know! He's a fish! I saw him jumping and trying to get out of the water!" Dead silence follows as I comprehend what the boy just said. They want me to save a fish. From drowning.

"Are you serious?" I turn to the boys and stiffen when I see smirks on their faces.

"Heh, no." Their chakra flares as they become taller and I take a step back I recognize the men who attacked us before we got here. The smaller man who I kicked in the groin earlier unsheathes his sword with a smirk. "This is for before." I can't react when he launches forward and hits me with the blunt end of his sword and I'm plunged into darkness…

~0~

Ouch…

I try to shift in my spot but I find my movement limited…

My head throbs painfully. I feel hard and damp ground beneath me. My clothing is soaked. But I don't remember why…

Suddenly I open my eyes wide as I remember. I was attacked by two men. I was hit in the head and…

I have no idea where I am.

I try to sit up but realize that my entire upper body is tied tightly by rope. I try to shift again but it almost feels like the rope is tightening as I struggle.

After several minutes I fall limp onto the ground in defeat. I'm so cold. My body starts to shiver due to my still wet clothes pressing against my skin.

I assess my surroundings again. I'm the only thing in this room. Which means that there isn't anything to switch with. An awful feeling of hopelessness wells up inside of me and tears corner my eyes. I can't let myself be kidnapped. I can't afford it. I have no idea what they'll do to me if I can't get out. They could sell me to Orochimaru and I would become a test subject. I feel tears start to drip down my cheeks. They could do whatever they want with me…

No...

Since my legs aren't tied I bend them and use them to start wriggling towards a wooden wall.

I will not let them take me...

I push harder.

I will not let them sell me to ANYONE...

I reach the wall and roll so I have my back towards it.

I will not become a test subject...

I use my legs to push again and find myself sitting up.

They will not do whatever they want with me…

I blink away my tears and allow chakra to flood from my chest and into my throat.

I will not sit here and be helpless!

I take a deep breath before sinking my teeth into the rope that binds me. Next, I direct my chakra into my teeth. It hurts like hell, but it works.

The rope breaks and I immediately stand. I pace around the small room. I know that I'm still in the village. I recognize the chakra signatures around me. The men must have hid me in an empty storage shed or something. Alright. Time to get out.

I flash through hand seals, ending with the tiger. "Fire release: searing embers!" Chakra flows painfully into my lungs. I take a deep breath, and blow. Red sparks and several small flames fill the air that I breathed out. It hits the door but nothing happens. The wood doesn't even smoke.

I straighten my back and glare at the wall. Alright, I get that the wood's damp but it should at least steam. The only logical explanation would be that this shed is sealed.

I walk towards the door and press my hand against it. I close my eyes and focus. Yes, it indeed is sealed. I can feel the chakra. Hmm.

I take an explosive tag out of my kunai holster and press it onto the door. I hope that this works. I send a pulse of chakra into the tag before jumping backwards, as far as I can from the blast.

3, 2, 1.

I cover my face when I feel the heat of the explosion. It's quickly over though and I look at the door expectantly. Oh would you look at that. It's still there. I feel a flare of frustration.

Now what? I raise a hand to my chin. I feel the chakra signatures around me again. I can feel Tsunami. But as for Inari…

He's running from house to house. Stopping when others open the door. He's coming my way…

And he runs right past my shed. I run to the door again and jiggle the handle. This is getting annoying. I send the door a chakra inforced kick. Nothing.

I stand in the middle of the shed again. Why don't I sense Sakura near Tazuna's house? I take a deep breath and spread my senses. Nobody that I'm looking for is in the market. I need to sense farther. Kakashi has left the place where we were training. I need to go even farther than that. I blink in surprise when I sense one of Kakashi's clones running around.

'He must be looking for me.' I need to get out now. Judging from his irregular flares in chakra he's under a lot of stress. I need to get out, now. The others, including the real Kakashi are out of my sensory range.

Once again, I look around the shed… Is there anything that I can do?

'I could make the shed itself into an explosive.' I pull out one of my kunai and walk to the side of the shed opposite of the door. Of course. An explosive tag going off on top of the door is completely different from having the wood itself become an explosive seal.

I press the kunai into the wood until I see clear scratches being made. I drag the weapon, creating various markings and patterns. A mix of zentangle and English.

It takes a few minutes but when I finish I step back and look at my work of art. It's too bad that I can't keep it. This one's completely different from the ones that I've made in the past. Well, that might be because it's engraved in wood. Obviously the average seal is on paper.

I walk forward and press my hand against the middle of the seal. I let out a sigh and look at it one more time before sending a pulse of chakra into the seal and jump as far backwards as I can. My back is pressed against a wall as I watch the wood burst into violet flames. I admit that the explosion is more beautiful than the seal. I flare of excitement goes through me when I see the wall in front of me missing.

I immediately jump out and run across the water towards Kakashi's shadow clone. He must have sensed the explosion because now he's also heading in my direction.

Thinking about earlier… No. The explosion was not more beautiful than the seal. It was just a different kind of beauty. It's like fireworks beside a painting. Of course a person would look at the fireworks first because it's more eye catching. But after the fireworks are finished the painting is still there for people to appreciate.

Fireworks are spontaneous and exciting. Paintings are calming and you can see the amount of effort the artist put into it.

Wow, I get extremely off topic don't I? In the amount of time I spent thinking about that, I can now see Kakashi. "Sensei! I'm sorry, some guys showed up and-"

"Go to the bridge! Now!" The clone yells before promptly disbanding. What? I stare at the smoke blankly until it's completely gone.

I turn and run in the direction of the bridge. Using the water as a shortcut. If Kakashi was serious enough to not ask me where I was before telling me where to go something must be really wrong. And to add to that he didn't give me an explanation. That must mean that the real Kakashi is almost out of chakra.

'What if it's Zabuza and Haku?' I run faster and feel a worried expression on my face.

It doesn't take me very long to reach the edge of the bridge. But I'm not stupid enough to just rush forward. I can sense Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Tazuna, and Kakashi. And… That enormous and overwhelming chakra from before. I don't even know if I want to go over there. It's intimidating. At least I know that it isn't Zabuza and Haku.

Instead of running forward I run to the right before jumping out and landing on the water. It's amazing what a shinobi's body can do. This is about twenty feet high that I just jumped down.

Now I run forward. It seems like the person with enormous chakra has made a shadow clone. Who is beside Kakashi, who isn't moving. I think that he's caught in a jutsu. My teammates are separated from Kakashi but are still standing between Tazuna and our enemy. Judging from the movement, Naruto and Sasuke are attacking, while Sakura is guarding Tazuna. I reach the point where if I come up, I'll be right behind Kakashi and the clone.

I take a deep breath before running up the bridge. As expected when I reach the top, I immediately infer that Kakashi is in a water prison jutsu. I'm at everyone's backs. Well, except for my teammates and Tazuna's. But they don't spot me.

Now I focus on our enemy. I freeze in my spot when I see his attire.

Oh no.

The back of the clone in front of me has blue, spiked hair. An enormous sword that's wrapped in what appears to be bandages but several purple, sharp looking scales stick out. But the thing that matters most…

Black cloak with red clouds.

Kisame Hoshigaki of the Akatsuki.

~0~

A/N: *puts on detective hat and strikes dramatic and charming pose.* IT'S EXPLAINATION TIME!

When Erin saved Suigetsu he went back to Kiri. I think that at about that time they would have recently lost Yagura, their Mizukage. Since Suigetsu wanted to rebuild the Seven Ninja Swordsman, he would have had a large impact (I'm assuming that he could make a large impact because in this world somebody who's younger than 15 can become a nations leader *coughGaaracough*). Anyways things in Kiri would happen a lot faster since they would be trying to rebuild the Seven Ninja Swordsman.

Soon Suigetsu would find Zabuza and Haku and convince Zabuza that Kiri wasn't the Blood Mist Village that he knew and was rebelling against. Zabuza would go back with Haku in tow.

Next, Gato would learn that the villagers were building a bridge and would look for someone to hire who could deal with the problem. Without Zabuza he would go to the people who were next in line. Akatsuki.

The Akatsuki accepted the mission and assigned Kisame and Itachi to deal with it.

With some help from Zetsu they learn that Tazuna hired a genin team. And much to Itachi's dismay, Sasuke was in it. Kisame would suggest that he dealt with Tazuna himself since it would be easy enough to handle a team of genin. Itachi agreed but he made Kisame promise not to kill any of the genin. Claiming that people shouldn't have to die at such a young of. Of course, Kisame would find the irony in this hilarious because Itachi just so happened to massacre his entire clan. But he would agree.

So there it is!

Also, don't worry. Zabuza and Haku will show up in the story.


	29. Chapter 28

Chapter 28:

WhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdo!?

I allow myself to drop down from my spot on the edge of the bridge. I catch the edge and pull myself so I can look but nobody will see me.

Maybe I should just turn around and run. No. They need me here. If I just leave Tazuna is going to die. He might die right now. I can tell that Kisame is going easy on Naruto and Sasuke. But despite that Naruto and Sasuke are getting absolutely destroyed out there.

I watch as Naruto creates five shadow clones before charging at the enormous Akatsuki member. But with a smooth and well controlled swing of his sword, Naruto is sent flying. All of his clones disband when he hits the ground. I know that Kisame says something, probably an insult, which makes Naruto bristle and shout back.

I shake my head. I need to help, not just watch. I think that the smartest move would be to free Kakashi. Then he could probably deal with the fight. I lift myself onto the edge again and pull out a kunai. No. I change my mind and pull out three shuriken. No. I pull out two kunai this time.

I take a deep breath. But my nerves aren't letting me move.

'Come on! I can't afford to be a coward now!' I take another deep breath.

3, 2, 1…

I flex my muscles and run forward. The adrenaline making me even faster. Once I get within five metres of the clone I launch my two kunai. But I don't aim directly at him. I aim just above his head. I keep running and I'm within two metres when the kunai pass over the clone's head. I can see the clone stiffen at the sight of the kunai but he doesn't have very much time to react.

I jump and I'm midair for a second before I switch with one of the kunai. It feels like this is happening in slow motion. I grab the remaining kunai that's beside me and get ready to launch it back at the clone. He looks genuinely surprised.

"Erin!" I hear Kakashi shout with his eyes wide. I almost smirk when I'm about to let go of my kunai. Right now the clone has another weapon coming at his back and soon at his front. He can't block two places at once.

Suddenly, feel a small breeze to my left. I don't get the chance to react other that flooding chakra into my left arm for the most amount of defence that I can give. I grimace and ready for impact.

I'm hit hard in the side. As I get hit I can feel and hear tearing. Both my trench coat and flesh. I don't know if I've ever dealt with something this painful. It feels like I'm being hit with an extra-sharp giant sandpaper sword. And to add to that I can feel my the chakra in my arm being sapped out.

The momentum slams me down and I roll for at least two metres. "E-Erin!"

"Are you alright!?" I slowly push myself up but without using my wounded arm. My entire body shakes from the shock of being hit. I don't dare to look at my arm but I look at what's happening around me. I should have at least taken care of the water clone.

Nope. It's still there.

Kisame has a confident smirk on his face. He holds his sword with it rested on his shoulder as if it doesn't probably weigh about fifty pounds. I stiffen when a grumble sounds off of the blade and it shakes a little bit. What? What kind of a sword is that?

Just a little bit intimidating.

Kisame by himself would be intimidating. He's probably at least seven feet tall. Oh, how about blue skin and eyes that look an awful lot like they should be on a shark. Oh wait, I'm not done yet. Kisame has markings on his cheeks that look like gills, and one more thing. His teeth are sharpened, LIKE A SHARK.

Wait, Suigetsu has that too. It's probably just a thing that the Seven Ninja Swordsman have. But still.

At the swords strange sound Kisame's smirk turns into a frown. "Hmm, Samehada doesn't seem to like your chakra very much." He comments casually. That thing has a freaking name. And it means SHARK SKIN.

"Erin! Are you alright!?" Sakura repeats and I can't ignore my injury anymore. I cough and I realize that I was winded. I finally look down at my left arm. The sight makes me want to throw up. I'm glad that my torn trench coat hides most of the actual wound. It's just that there's so much blood, even now it dribbles steadily into a puddle on the ground.

"...Erin?" Asks Naruto nervously. I look up to see Sasuke looking genuinely worried as well. My team needs me. I can't tell them how bad it is.

I try to move my left arm so I can wave. But it doesn't move. My fingers twitch weakly. I take a deep breath. I just have to improvise. I flood chakra into my arm.

I don't let the others see but I close my eyes briefly and put my right hand into half of a focussing seal. I focus on the chakra in my arm. If I can make water, fire, wind, lightning, and earth move with chakra, why shouldn't I be able to move my arm?

I attempt to lift my arm again and focus on my chakra moving. It works. I give a small wave, stand, and test my arm with a punch. "I'm fine, it isn't as bad as it looks." Actually, it's probably worse than it looks. But the looks of relief on my allies faces are what I need right now. No wait, Kisame raises a brow and Kakashi looks… Terrified. He's scared. I can tell. Not for himself but for us. I saw it in Conner's eyes when he called the child protective services. Oh, his shout wasn't just surprise. It was a warning.

Despite thinking of Conner, I ignore Kakashi. Right now Kisame is standing between me and my teammates. I need to reach them to make a plan.

I pull out an explosive tag from my holster before launching forward. I just need to get around him. It's simple. It should be easy enough. I'm not even planning on setting off the explosive note right now. I'll just make Kisame think that I will.

"Water release: hidden in the mist jutsu!" Oh no.

Even though I jump backwards I'm almost immediately surrounded by mist. I can't see more than two feet in front of me. But I think that I'll be fine. I can sense what's everyone is. I don't know about the others though.

"GUYS WHAT'S HAPPENING!?"

"ERIN WHERE ARE YOU!?"

I grimace at the the level of immaturity in my team. Kisame must think that we're the whiniest, most annoying group of genin. I'm embarrassed to be in this squad.

Shouldn't shinobi be taught at a young age to control their emotions? Seriously. They've been in training since they were five. I've been in training for just this year and I'm fine…-

Kisame's coming and I just realized something. My birthday was four months ago. I'm fifteen. Wait… WHAT!?

Ok, ok. This is a problem for another time. I can sense Kisame walking in my direction. Alright, don't forget, I just need to get past him. My arm throbs in pain and I see that it's still bleeding. A lot.

I launch forward again. I only have a small amount of chakra in my system, he shouldn't be able to sense me when I swerve to avoid him.

I follow my plan but I gasp in surprise when I see the sword swinging in my direction out of the mist. If I don't move it's going to hit my stomach. None of the spikes are showing though so it would probably just knock me backwards. But of course I don't want that to happen.

I jump and barely avoid scraping my knees. Then I land with a shoulder roll. When I turn back the sword is missing. But I know that Kisame is to my left. I've officially decided that I'm going to retaliate.

I run through hand signs as quickly as possible and flood chakra into my arms. I hold my arms out and I can see small sparks coming off of them. "Lightning release: electrifying spark!" Normally I would have to be in contact with my target. But water conducts electricity and I just so happened to be completely surrounded by mist. Even if I don't see Kisame there is a one hundred percent chance that he's going to get hit.

My chakra escapes through my fingers completely surrounding me. From a few metres away I hear a loud curse. Now's my chance.

I turn and run. I run like my life depends on it. And there's a good chance that it does. If I were Kisame, I'd be pissed that a fresh genin just managed to electrocute me. But then, I'm Erin. And I'm just a little bit pissed that another human almost tore my arm in half. Or at least I should be. I feel like I got my vengeance.

"Fire release: great fireball jutsu!" I shout in surprise when an enormous ball of fire appears in front of me from the mist.

I curse and run through more hand signs before slamming my hands onto the ground. "Earth release: mud wall!" The rocks that have been used to make the bridge rise in front of me, making a stable barrier. I spin and press my back against the wall. I watch in awe as the fire completely surrounds me but doesn't touch me. Luckily.

When it's done I stand to see the edges of my wall cracked. "SASUKE IT'S ME YOU IDIOT!" This is followed by a loud string of English insults and curses.

"Don't talk to Sasuke-kun like that!" Sakura yells when I stop for air and walk out of my spot and up to my team.

"You don't even know what I said!" I'm aware of my slightly stronger accents after saying so many English words.

"I don't! But I can sense the insults! Cha!" Sasuke lets out a "hmph," and crosses his arms. This angers me more.

"Oh, so no apologies!? You don't feel the slightest bit bad about almost killing your teammate!?" Sasuke stubbornly turns his head the opposite direction. "What are you!? Twelve!? Oh wait." I snap the insult.

"Erin, all of us are twelve except for you and Tazuna." Says Naruto in a hurt fashion.

"Oh, but Sasuke's a different kind of twelve." I growl and point, "I know ten complete jerks in Konoha. Sasuke is seven of them."

"Do we really have to do this now!?" Cries Sakura as she steps in between us. "Also, SASUKE-KUN IS NOT A JERK!" As we yell at each other the mist clears. Kisame must have released the jutsu because it gives one of us an advantage.

"Give me a at least ten reasons why I should like Sasuke." I deadpan. Sakura looks even more frustrated.

"Well, he's super cool!-" She begins to list off with her fingers.

"Oy! Right now it's you brats jobs to protect me!" Tazuna yells from behind us, now the mist is completely cleared and I can see Kisame using his sword as a prop to hold him up. I glance at Kakashi and I don't think that he's ever been more disappointed in us.

"Sasuke! Naruto! You guys go and try to free Kakashi-sensei! Sakura! You stay here while I try my best to distract the real Kisame!" I growl, the group nods as a whole and Naruto and Sasuke launch away. Oddly enough, Kisame just lets them pass by. As I turn around I feel a hand grip my shoulder.

"But Erin, y-your arm!" Whispers Sakura.

I shake her off, "like I said before. It isn't as bad as it looks." I lie smoothly, she stares at me for a second. But backs off.

I walk forward, directly towards Kisame. The man gives me a toothy smirk and lifts his sword back onto his shoulder. "You're tougher than I thought, shrimp." I raise a brow, "shrimp?" I guess that he's referring to how I just electrocuted him and adding my size compared to him. He gives a decisive nod, "definitely tougher than you look." Ok, that's annoying.

"Erin! You can't hold back against him! Attack with all of your power!" Kakashi yells from his prison. I blink, what does he mean? "As far as I've seen, you haven't taken a single one of your opponents seriously. Even just now, even though he has injured your arm. You didn't attack with all of your power. I told you that the elemental jutsu that I have taught you varies in power based on how much chakra put into it." He doesn't say anymore. But I can guess what he would say if Kisame wasn't here: either you have barely any chakra or your holding back a lot.

A realization hits me, I could have killed him. If I put enough chakra into my attack I could have fried his brain. The jutsu that I was taught is meant to restart hearts, there isn't any reason why it couldn't stop them as well. The fact that I know how to do something that could kill someone else makes me almost feel sick. I don't know why I would ever aim to kill someone. Even now, I'm barely angry about almost losing my arm. Kisame is just doing what he was payed to do. And he's probably being payed more than us.

My thoughts are interrupted when I spot Kisame running through hand seals. "Times up, shrimp!" I stiffen and pull out several pre-prepared explosive kunai. As I'm about to throw them I hear a shout of protest from behind me.

"Don't you dare use explosives! I've already let that disgusting wall slide but I won't let you completely destroy my bridge!" I glance over my shoulder and almost turn all of the way around but realize how stupid of an idea that would be.

Even when I look back forward I missed whatever jutsu Kisame called but I now know that it involved four giant sharks made out of water being launched in my direction. I launch to the right and manage to dodge three of them. The fourth one looms above me and will probably reach me in a few seconds. Making a split-second decision, I throw all of the explosive kunai.

They hit the sharks face. Briefly absorbing some of its chakra, before bursting into navy blue flames. Hah! Take that! Oh no.

During my moment of victory the leftover droplets of water turned into mini sharks. They are now coming my way. Well, I must admit that this is a pretty solid jutsu but how much chakra did he even use? The answer is a lot.

I look around briefly and I spot a piece of rubble. Oops, I may or may not have messed up the bridge a little bit. I switch with the piece of rubble to avoid being hit by the small water sharks.

"Oy! What did I just say about you not destroying my bridge!?" I feel my eye twitch. Maybe I'll just leave HIM to defend himself. Literally the only reason why I'm still here is because my teammates are. Kakashi's trapped, everyone else will probably refuse to leave.

I straighten my shoulders and don't even look at Tazuna. "We've been hired to guard you. Not the bridge. If you want me to be more careful, you'll have to pay me even more than the debt that you owe me now." Dead silence follows my words. I struck a nerve, I smirk. "Maybe I'll destroy the entire bridge out of sheer spite. I know that it would look awesome." Of course I'm being sarcastic. But I think that almost everyone is taking me seriously.

"DO NOT DO THAT!"

"ERIN STOP TERRORISING TAZUNA-SAN!" Kisame bursts out laughing, now I'm caught in a lot of shouting from the two behind me. Also, "stop terrorising" him? Maybe you should tell him to shut up and stop distracting me.

I ignore the others, now is a good chance to attack. Kisame's defences are down. Hmm? It looks like I dropped my kunai from my original attack. You know, the one when I almost had my arm ripped in half.

Chakra flows into my chest briefly, before I switch. I'm now slightly closer to my enemy. I pull out more explosives, these ones should be bigger. I send a pulse of chakra into them before sending them at Kisame.

3, 2, 1…

They explode and are significantly larger than the last ones. Violate and blood red flames mix. I watch as Kisame barely manages to jump out of the way. That's weird, if I were him I would have just used Samehada as a shield and absorbed all of the chakra.

I stand back briefly, breathing hard. I'm starting to get tired and I've barely done anything… I glance down briefly at my arm. It still throbs, blood is still dripping steadily. My trench coats sleeve from my upper arm down is soaked with blood. I'm amazed that I managed to convince my teammates that I was fine.

My legs are starting to ache from standing. I feel like I'm freezing… I'm running out of time. I'm suffering from blood loss and if the boys don't hurry, there is a very good chance that I'll collapse. Die even. I'm not even sure how well I would do if I backed down now. We don't have any medic-nins on our team. Plus we're in a poor country with barely any-

Oh, I suck at paying attention.

While I was worrying about my arm, Kisame summoned a large shark. Which is somehow within a giant, floating bubble of water. And it's coming my way.

I get ready to switch but I stop and shake my head slightly. Like I said before, I'm running out of time. My job may be to buy time but if things don't get rolling soon I'm in trouble. I can't just keep running away.

I run through hand signs and get ready. My plan: use way more chakra than what I would usually use-injure Kisame (hopefully I can)-and help Naruto and Sasuke.

The shark is directly in front of me. "Earth release: mud wall!" This time I flood chakra into my arms and even through my chest. "Hn!" I slam my hands into the ground and almost gape at the wall as it practically shoots up. The shark, which was looming over me is hit right in the middle. It's practically flung upwards. I stare in amazement as the shark falls out of my sight behind the wall. I hear a familiar "poof", similar to the sound of shadow clones disbanding. Smoke rises from behind my wall but I can't quite see what's happened. Judging from the chakra signatures around me the shark is gone.

Kisame's coming my way again. I look around for a second for an idea. Making a decision, I take out one of my largest explosive seals and smack it onto the wall in front of me. I briefly hold my hands in a focussing seal, before reaching forward and sending a large pulse of chakra into the wall.

I jump backwards as peacock-green bursts from the seal. The wall explodes along with the seal, sending chunks of rock flying in Kisame's direction. This time I see him use Samehada as a shield from the flying stones.

I don't give him a break. I run forwards, avoiding the rubble. I can do more damage when I'm closer.

Kisame gives a toothy smirk and goes through more hand seals. "Water release: water shark bullet technique!" I get ready, but I don't have time to bring up a mud wall. This jutsu is far faster than the last few. The best that I can do is try to dodge to the side. One of the fins leaves a small cut on my cheek.

I continue my approach. I'm going amazingly fast. I can't believe how much chakra I'm using right now. It burns but I don't care.

I wonder how much chakra I have?

I'm pretty sure that I have far more chakra than the average fourteen-no-fifteen year old. I mean, I've lasted for this long using so many jutsu.

I push the thought to the back of my mind and go through hand seals. "Lightning release: electrifying spark!" So that Kisame can't read exactly where I'm attacking I switch with another piece of rubble on his right side. I reach forward for a punch. 'Just enough chakra to stun him for a few minutes…-'

Owowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowow!

I jump backwards and clutch my hand. This time Kisame decided to block with Samehada. I jump back farther before taking off my gloves. Oh, this kind of makes me feel sick to look at. Puncture wounds line my fist. To add to that, my skin is almost white.

I shake my head and look back forward. Kisame is dealing with a very grumpy and uncooperative sword. It hisses in distaste and shivers angrily. I blink in confusion briefly but remember something. '"Hmm, Samehada doesn't seem to like your chakra very much."'

Ladies and gentlemen… I think that I might have found myself an advantage. Samehada hates my chakra. I stand and pocket my gloves, I don't want to ruin them more than I already have. All that I have to do is make contact with the sword.

Despite the pain that I'm in, I force an arrogant smirk onto my face. "You know, one time I heard that you're more likely to be killed by a vending machine than by a shark." Yes, vending machines do exist in this world. Kisame manages to calm the sword down and looks down at me.

"What?" He asks skeptically with a raised brow.

"I said: that someone is more likely to be killed by a vending machine than by a shark." Kisame's shark-like eyes narrow and he straightens his back. He looks even larger and more intimidating now.

"I'd watch my tongue if I were you, shrimp." I naturally want to shrink back but I stand firm. As far as I know it this is the stupidest thing that I've ever done. I'm aware of the fact that Kisame has been going easy on me so far. I don't know why though. He could probably kill me the instant that he felt like it.

Despite all of this I narrow my eyes right back. "I'd careful not to bite my tongue if I were you, strange shark-man. Since you talk so much." Wait… I cannot BELIEVE that I just said that. My mouth just kind of moved without my consent. I swear to god I just insulted his teeth, and his looks. Not to mention insulting something that's probably a factor of his personality even though I've probably spoken more than him in this fight. All in two sentences. Wow.

Would you look at the sad sight of this fifteen year old girl with two very obvious injuries and suffering from blood loss insulting an S-ranked criminal from the Akatsuki. Very sad indeed-

I stare, dumbfounded as Kisame lets out a booming laugh. "You've got guts shrimp, I'll give you that!" What? He doesn't even seem offended in the slightest. "It's too bad we're on opposite sides." He comments before lifting his sword.

I jump backwards and barely avoid being hit to the side. My legs wobble weakly as I land. My head is starting to ache and black corners my vision. But I can't give up.

I dodge another swing and flood chakra into my chest. I continue to duck and dodge. Each second I add more chakra. Flooding it into everywhere except for my head.

Kisame sends me a sharp kick which I dodge again. He follows up with a swing from his sword. This I don't dodge. I move slightly so it doesn't hit my body.

All of my built up chakra…

I raise my arm.

Into my right hand!

In less than a second I stare in brief amazement as my pale hand is completely surrounded by wisps of black chakra. I didn't get a good look at it but it almost looked like there was a giant clawed hand surrounding my own.

My fist hits its mark. Right onto the sword. I feel all of my chakra being sapped immediately.

The spikes bury painfully into my knuckles. Tearing, ripping, and cutting through my flesh. Similar to what happened to my arm.

It takes all of my strength not to scream in pain. I try to move but my legs almost seem frozen. So I bring up more chakra and force them to move. I look at my hands again and wherever there aren't gashes my skin is becoming blue. No doubt, if I wasn't using chakra I'd be down by now-

My vision goes black and I stumble. I try to regain my balance but end up on one knee. I sit there desperately trying to regain complete consciousness and composure. I sense Kisame's chakra signature slowly coming in my direction. He must be walking. I try to stand again using my chakra but my body screams in pain even when the smallest amount of chakra enters.

My arm and hands hang limply. Surprisingly, they don't hurt very much. In fact, they're completely numb. But my mind screams about how bad of a sign that is. Hmm, my feet and legs are becoming numb too.

I sense a chakra signature above my head. Kisame must be holding Samehada right above my head. "It's funny. You're the one who's calling me a strange shark-man when you're almost as blue as I am." He chuckles. I blink furiously as I try to regain my vision. My eyesight fades in and out. Either complete darkness or everything being too blurry to make out. "Well, do you give up yet?-"

Kisame is abruptly cut off by a loud sound. It's difficult to describe. It's like a scream mixed with a snarl. I'm aware of a loud thump beside me. The ground shakes slightly. My chakra has taken effect on Samehada.

"Why you-!"

"Fire release: great fireball jutsu!" Searing heat which I barely feel passes over my face.

Finally, help has arrived.

I surrounded by two ray-of-sunshine chakras which I recognize as Naruto's shadow clones. "Erin!" One of them shouts in my ear, "are you alright!?"

I try to speak but find that it takes too much energy. I feel myself being lifted off of the ground and somewhat onto my feet. One Naruto takes each of my shoulders and walks me in a direction. I wish that I could help but my body isn't responding.

"E-Erin!" I recognize Sakura's panicked voice and I feel myself being gently placed on the ground.

I crack open my eyes too only see blurry shapes and colours above me. I make one last attempt at moving but nothing happens. As I close my eyes again I feel my breath weaken and my heartbeat slow.

My last thought before losing consciousness is wondering if I die I'll be sent back to my world and get to be with my older brother again.

~0~

A/N: Cliff hanger! Muahahahahah!

I hope that I did this fight scene well! I wanted to show a bit of what Erin is capable of.

Also, tell me if I got Kisame's character right. I wasn't absolutely sure and confident with it!

Also: official apologies to any twelve year old readers out there! But like Erin said-Sasuke is a different kind of twelve.

Another thing, can anyone take any wild guesses as to what Erin's necklace is?

Anyway, I love hearing your feedback and answering your questions! Don't be afraid to comment!


	30. Chapter 29

Chapter 29:

A certain four year old redhead giggled as she watched her older brother carry dishes around the kitchen.

"I-I'll help!" The girl whispered to herself as she stumbled forward and paused for a moment to gain her balance. She walked up to the dishwasher before huffing as she lifted a plate upwards.

The girl giggled again as she practically ran with the plate. She reached a cupboard and stretched upwards. The redhead grunted with the effort. She pouted in frustration when she couldn't reach.

She managed to stretch even farther, bringing the plate to the tips of her fingers. A shocked gasp could be heard behind her. "Erin! Put that dow-" Erin's head turned at her older brothers voice but in her destraction, the plate slipped from her fingers.

CRASH!

Pieces of glass littered the kitchen floor. Erin stood right in the middle. Without knowing any better, the redhead reached down. "O-Oops…"

"Erin! No!" Her brother cried and stepped forward. Only to let out a yell of pain and flopping down.

The girl now kneeled down and grabbed two large fistfuls of broken glass. A shocked shriek of pain rang through the house.

Erin fell backwards and clutched her hands to her chest. Tears moved freely and she wailed.

Conner sat, clutching his foot on the opposite end of the kitchen. The seven year old had tears silently running down his face.

It didn't take very long to get a reaction from an adult. Their mother bolted into the room and gasped in shock. She immediately grabbed Conner, who was the closest. And set him down on a chair.

She turned, Erin was in the middle of all of the broken glass. Not wanting to get cut herself, she left the room briefly and grabbed a broom.

When the woman came back, Erin had let herself drop to the side and had curled into her stomach in pain. Finally, the mother began to sweep glass out of the way.

It took the woman a good two minutes to reach Erin (not including the time it took her to react and get a broom). Once she reached the redhead instead of picking her up like she did with Conner, she kneeled down and dragged the girl to her feet.

"M-Mom!" Erin sniffled when she saw her mother and tried to embrace her for comfort. But the woman had a tight grip on her arms and wouldn't allow it. She didn't want to get blood all over her.

The woman squeezed hard on her arms, specifically on her left. "Erin. Don't EVER touch plates again." The girl kept crying and was now trying to get away. "Now, stop crying. We're going to the hospital." This only made the four year old cry harder.

"M-M-Mommy!" She tried to hug her mother again but failed. Behind them, Conner tried to stand to comfort his sibling but winced when he put weight on his foot.

The woman squeezed even harder on the girl's arms. "What did I just say. Stop. Crying." She snapped angrily.

Nobody knew that it was possible, but the girl cried even harder. She squirmed and tried to twist to escape. "Mom s-stop i-i-it… Th-That hurts." She didn't let go-

~0~

I feel my entire body jump as I wake up. I try to move but pain shoots throughout my entire body. Owww…

I blink open my eyes and immediately slam them closed. The light… It gives me a headache…

Oh no, the darkness gives me a headache as well…

Everything give me a headache!

I take a deep and shaky breath. I feel my face contort into a grimace of pain. When I move my face I feel a familiar wet substance. Tears. I was crying in my sleep.

The pain must have triggered that memory. I don't remember everything but I think that I had to get stitches.

I slowly crack my eyes open again. This gives my eyes time to adjust to the light.

Oh, I'm alone in a hospital room. That's great. That is my favourite thing to be-alone in a hospital room.

I try to move my left arm but it screams in protest. I let out a shaky sigh and carefully lift my right arm. It still hurts but not nearly as much as the left.

As I bring it to my face I notice bandages all over my hand. My skin is also even more pale than usual.

I smoothly wipe the wetness from my cheeks.

What happened…?

I look to my left and see two… I forgot what they're called. It's like, umm… Bags that hold liquid, and their on stands. One has clear liquid while the other has red liquid. Also they have tubes that go down to my left arm. Oh my god they're stuck in.

I try to move my left arm again. But it only wobbles slightly.

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh… There are tubes connected to my arm. What do I do? Who knows?

"He-" I pause to cough because of my rough voice. "Hello?" Nobody answers, I let out another pained sigh and try to relax.

Wow, my body hurts a lot. What did I do to make it feel this terrible again…?

My thoughts are interrupted when I hear the door finally open and close. I can hear a couple of people quietly talking.

I spot them, a man and a woman. Oh yeah, that's… Shit, I forgot her name.

The woman sees me and gasps, "Erin!" She cries before running forward and trying to give me a hug. It's kind of awkward since I'm lying on my back. I sit there stiffly for a few seconds.

"Umm… Ow." I finally interrupt and the woman promptly let's go.

"Oh, I'm sorry Erin. I forgot that you bruise easily. You know, since you're dealing with blood loss." I'm dealing with what now? I raise a brow.

The man behind the woman, who seems vaguely familiar chuckles. "I wasn't expecting this to happen to you on your first mission outside of Konoha, Erin-san." I blink in confusion. "Something tells me that we're going to see you around fairly often."

I stare, trying to put names on their faces, finally I sigh in defeat. "This may make me sound like a terrible person, but I forgot both of your names." I state bluntly, "and… I forgot what happened…?" There's a moment of dead silence, before the two burst out laughing.

"I'm Minami! This is Haru-kun!" Haru…? Oh right! Wasn't he the doctor from when I first came to Konoha?

"Yeah, so what happened?"

Haru, hmms thoughtfully, "well… You're first C-rank turned into an A-rank or an S-rank." I stare at him blankly as he continues, "of course, I don't know exactly what happened but a couple of days ago one of Kakashi-san's summonings ran into Konoha. He said that you were injured very badly so Hokage-sama sent a medical unit to the wave village. I was with them. When we got there you were passed out and almost completely blue from bloodloss."

Damn, I sure do wish that I could remember exactly what happened. "To add to that, your flesh was torn along your left arm and there were puncture wounds all over your hands." He paused and chuckled with a casual shrug, "in fact, it's almost a miracle that you're alive!" What!? How can he say that I almost died so easily!?

I suppose that it's the difference in cultures again… I heave yet another sigh, "so, are my teammates still there?"

"Yeah, they'll be back in about a month or so…" Minami states thoughtfully, "but you should probably get some rest now! I'll let all of your friends know that you woke up! Especially Lee-san, then he can finally stop training!" She laughed at the mention of Lee.

The two exit the room and I almost laugh when I think about Lee. Is Minami implying that he has been training for the entire time that I've been passed out? That sounds like a very "Lee" thing to do.

I feel my eyes drooping and don't try to resist sleep…

~0~

I wake up the next day from yet another vivid dream. I freeze slightly, now I can remember what happened.

I'm a freaking idiot.

Taking on a member of the Akatsuki. Using insults in that fight. All of it was idiotic.

Anger floods through me when I realize something. I could have just switched with the clone. The clone that was holding Kakashi in a water prison, I could have just switched with it. It would have been so easy-

The door bursts open and I immediately recognize one of the chakra signatures.

"Erin! Are you alright!?" I roll my eyes at Lee's antics.

"Lee, ask me that again and look into my eyes." Seriously, do I look fine? Does it look like I didn't just almost die?

"Hmm… I suppose that you will be alright." He says thoughtfully.

"Especially if you have enough energy to be sarcastic." I hear a girl's voice sound from behind Lee. Oh, his entire team is here.

I stare at them briefly, "oh, umm-hi." I greet awkwardly. Tenten waves, Neji silently watches me, Gai gives me a thumbs up. There is an awkward silence that feel like it lasts for hours, but it's probably just a few seconds.

Suddenly Lee decides to break the silence by slamming his hands on the bed. It makes the whole mattress wobble. "Erin! I must know what happened on your mission!" Err, I don't even know if I'm allowed to talk about my mission. Especially since a member of the Akatsuki was involved.

Gai seems to read my thoughts, "you can trust your hidden leaf friends! It isn't as if an S-ranked criminal tried to assassinate your client!" I give him a deadpan look. How did he do that? He just guessed exactly what happened. We lock eyes and his encouraging smiles fades slightly. "Oh…" He awkwardly scratches his head.

Lee's excitement grows and Neji and Tenten stare at me in amazement. "You fought against an S-ranked criminal!?" Cries Lee in surprise and glee. I don't understand why he would be excited about this. Fighting and violence is stupid.

"Whoa, that makes total sense!" Gasps Tenten.

"And you managed to survive?" Comments Neji from his spot, I narrow my eyes at him slightly. What a jerk. He reminds me of Sasuke. Plus, I'm ninety five percent sure that this is the first time that he actually spoke to me. What a fantastic way to introduce yourself.

Neji was one of my favourite characters in the anime. He showed and explained the harsh reality of life. In a way, I could relate to him. But this is just annoying and it's pissing me off.

"Well, obviously I did manage to survive and soon I will be healthy again to deal with even more S-ranked criminals." I find myself in a staring contest with the boy. Tension fills the room, I feel like this is like a clash between prodigies. And yes, I am aware of the fact that I am a prodigy. Who else can learn jutsu from different elements within five weeks? Probably Kakashi or somebody like Itachi.

Ha, Neji is only focussing on one fighting style. I'm focussing on three. I'd like to see how long he would last against Kisame with his taijutsu. Even with byakugan and everything Samehada would sap his chakra. Not to mention Kisame could easily keep him at a distance with his water release. Wow, I feel like I respect somebody who is my enemy more than somebody who should be my ally.

I wonder if Neji's thought process is currently similar to mine. It sure does look like it. Suddenly the boy's mouth quirks up slightly in a smirk, "I'd like to see you attempt to take on an S-ranked criminal." Excuse me? Are you implying that I'm lying?

I open my mouth but I'm cut off when I hear the door to my room open and close. "I hope that I'm not interrupting anything…" I recognize the Hokage's voice after a few seconds. Gai and Lee both turn and bow at the old man.

"Don't worry, Hokage-sama. You didn't interrupt anything." Greets Gai and I catch a warning look cast between Neji and I.

Lord fourth gives a grandfatherly smile as if he cares about each of us equally. "Then, I apologize but I need to speak with Erin-kun before she needs to rest again." He says calmly and I blink in surprise.

"Hn!" Gai gives a sharp nod before gesturing to his squad to follow him. Lee gives me a thumbs up before leaving. Tenten gives me a small and awkward smile before jogging after the two. Before Neji leaves we lock eyes again and simultaneously narrow them in a challenge.

Once they have all left Hiruzen chuckles and places himself in the small seat beside my bed. I watch each of his movements carefully. "They are definitely an interesting squad, aren't they?" I give a "hn," in agreement.

The old man lets out a sigh and leans back in the chair. I watch him and wait for a few seconds, "umm… Was there something that you wanted to speak to me about, Hokage-sama…?"

He laughs again, "straight to the point, aren't you Erin-kun!" I look at him blankly. The sooner we finish talking, the sooner he leaves. I can't relax with him here. "Well then, I would like you to tell me what happened on your mission. Pakkun was very vague." Pakkun…? Maybe it's one of Kakashi's summonings.

I nod my head and begin explaining. Throughout my recall the Hokage watches me with a skeptical look. I decide not to mention that I already know what the Akatsuki is. I just describe Kisame as a man who looks like a shark with a black cloak with red clouds.

The old man immediately stiffens when I describe Kisame. "Hmm, I think that that man might have been Hoshigaki Kisame of Kirigakure. I think that I've seen him in Kakashi-sensei's bingo book." That is a lie. I didn't see him there, but he was probably in the bingo books somewhere.

A grim look appears on the Hokage's face. "It's said that Hoshigaki Kisame abandoned his village. He must have joined the Akatsuki." I give him a fake questioning look.

"Hokage-sama, who are the Akatsuki?" The more information that I can get, the better.

The old man and let's out yet another sigh, "they're a group of S-ranked criminals. There's also a rumour going about that Uchiha Itachi has joined the Akatsuki. But that's all that we really know…" He stops hesitantly, then leans forward. "Do you know of the Uchiha massacre…?" I stiffen briefly and think through my answer carefully. Of course I know about the Uchiha massacre, but nobody in this world has told me. I think that it might be like a forbidden topic. In the academy I've heard the students mention "Uchiha" once or twice but they immediately cut themselves off.

"...No, Hokage-sama." I finally answer quietly.

He stares at me silently until I finally shift in discomfort. "Well, this involves one of your teammates pasts. Maybe if you know you'll be able to understand him more." I know that he's talking about Sasuke. But I don't think that I'll ever quite understand his behaviour. He is a complete jerk. He thinks that he's better than everyone else. He would probably argue that I have no idea the level of pain that he has been through. But he has no idea how much pain I've been through, or Naruto's pain. And would you look at both Naruto and I, not complaining, not thinking that we're better, not complaining our levels of pain. Nobody even knows that I've dealt with any tragedy. They can only make educated guesses…

I feel some of my muscles tighten at the frustration that I feel. But I quickly force them to relax. "Hmm… It was about five years ago now…" Oh, this is going to be a long story. "Sasuke had a brother named Itachi. Itachi was well known for being a prodigy at a very young age. So I allowed him to skip ahead in the academy. Now I've learnt that I shouldn't have… Itachi quickly became jonin level and became a captain in the ANBU black ops. He experienced war at such a young age… The trauma and stress may have gotten to him." He paused for several seconds and I silently watch. He looks incredibly disappointed in himself… It makes me feel bad to see the old man so depressed. From what I've seen he treats Naruto equally to everyone else. He's nice to me. Or at least he pretends to be nice.

It seems like the old man snaps out of his trance and continues. "Anyways, Itachi massacred his entire clan. Only leaving Sasuke to survive alone. Itachi then abandoned Konoha as an S-ranked criminal." I blink, well that escalated quickly. I don't know exactly what happened but Conner told me that Itachi isn't what he seems like. He didn't give me any hints after that but something tells me that the Hokage is lying to me. I have years of experience from being lied to by adults. I can see the way that he sits, and the way that he's looking at me. I can say that he's good at lying though. It didn't effect his voice in the slightest.

Oops, I realize that he's looking at me expectantly. Actually, what does he expects? Does he think that I should be shocked or something? I have absolutely no idea how the average person reacts to something like this. Come to think of it, yes of course I should be freaking shocked! I just learned what my comrade has gone through! Now this old man's gonna think that I'm a freak. I'm taking this with a completely straight face.

I hesitate, averting my eyes, "... I'm… I'm just wondering why somebody would ever do anything like that…" Fantastic job. Ten out of ten. That wasn't suspicious at all. Good work team Erin. High fives all around.

Hiruzen's wrinkled eyes flash briefly and he stands. I stiffen, ready for any accusations. "I wonder that too Erin-kun…" I relax but only slightly as he turns and begins walking towards the door. "Well, I may as well let you get your rest. I'll be seeing you!" I watch silently as he leaves, quietly shutting the door behind him.

~0~

A/N: I'm so sorry! This chapter is so late! I hope that everyone's having an awesome winter break!

In this chapter I kind of wanted to show that Erin isn't a perfect human being(with the stare down with Neji). She is actually similar to Sasuke in some ways. Just didn't want everyone to forget: Erin can be overconfident.


	31. Chapter 30

Chapter 30:

I blink against the light as I finally step out of the hospital. I had to stay for about a week and I still need to keep my arm in a sling so I don't tear my muscles. Medical ninjutsu may be amazing but it can't completely fix big injuries like what I have.

"Isn't it great that you finally get to go home?" Minami asks from beside me, she decided to walk me back to my apartment.

"Hn." I give a small nod.

"That doesn't sound very enthusiastic to me!" She laughs and casually lifts her arms to her head. She pauses and looks down at me knowingly, "hey, do you wanna get some dango on the way back? It'll be my treat!" I give her an intense deadpan.

"Is that even a question?" She bursts into laughter again.

~0~

"Oy! What the hell happened to your arm, kid!?" I immediately recognize Anko when we reach the dango shop.

I hold up my finger in a "one second" gesture as Minami and I walk to the front till. "An order of Botchan Dango please!" Asks Minami cheerfully. The old woman who runs the shop adjusts her glasses and leans over the counter to stare at me.

"Oh dear! What happened to you? I was wondering where you went!"

I laugh kind of awkwardly and scratch the back of my head. "Well… Let's just say that my first mission outside of the village was a little bit tougher than I thought it would be…"

The woman immediately laughs and leans backwards, "a number three!" From deep within the kitchen I hear somebody shout in reply. "You two just wait somewhere in the store for your order!" Minami and I nod simultaneously and turn around. Anko furiously waves for us to come and sit beside her.

I shrug slightly and sit on the opposite side of the table. Minami promptly plants herself beside me. "Well…?" I blink at her, "what happened to your arm!?"

"Didn't you hear what I said to the, erm, person?" I answer awkwardly.

"Yeah I did! But I need details! What EXACTLY happened!?" I hesitate, the Hokage asked me not to tell any of my genin friends what happened. But he didn't say anything about adults and jonin. Minami knows so why not?

I share a look with Minami before answering, "my first C-rank became an A-rank." Yes, I asked the Hokage and he decided that A-rank would be appropriate for my mission.

Anko gasps over dramatically and leans in even closer. "HOW?"

"Anko-san, you're causing a scene…" I hear Minami mutter from beside me. I briefly glance around to see others scowling at us.

I lower my voice, "apparently somebody was out to get our client. And he just so happened to be really rich and had enough money to hire somebody to take care for our client…" I pause, Anko seems more and more excited.

"Who?" She practically whisper screams, I wonder if she's even capable of speaking quietly?

I look around hesitantly, I don't know how I feel about telling Anko exactly who almost killed me… Whatever, I signed up for this as soon as I sat down. "Hoshigaki Kisame, of the Akatsuki." I spot Anko's grin wavering for a brief moment but it immediately reappears.

"What!? How'd you manage to survive!?"

I shrug and lean back, "I don't even know. Don't ask me." But Anko leans forward.

"Cmon! You must have some special technique hidden up your sleeve!" I feel my muscles tense, why is she asking me for such specific details…? She's trying to get some sort of information! But why? I have no idea what she would gain from these details. I can understand if she's curious about the Akatsuki or Kisame. But why is she asking questions about me…?

What if she somehow doesn't completely trust me. It makes sense. I'm not from Konoha. But why ask about my fighting style?-

"One order of Botchan Dango!" I jump when a box is placed in front of me.

"Uhh-thank you." I dip my head slightly to the elderly woman who gives me a small and friendly nod.

A few seconds after she leaves I look back at Anko. "Why do you want to know?" I ask suspiciously.

She stares at me for a few moments, and suddenly bursts into laughter. "That suspicion will help you out in the long run of being a kunoichi, kiddo!" I stare at her blankly as she continues, "but don't worry about me! I'm just nosey and can't mind my own business!" I hear Minami begin awkwardly laugh along with Anko.

Well, I don't know what to make of this situation. Anko eventually stands, "well, I suppose that I should head home. Enjoy your time of being partially handicapped, kid!" I give a small wave as she promptly leaves the store.

"Anko's...an interesting person." Comments Minami.

"Indeed."

~0~

"See you later!"

"See you!"

Once I lose sight of Minami I close my apartment door, turn around, and breath a deep sigh. Finally solitude…

I don't remember the last time I was completely alone and I didn't have to worry about; keeping an eye out for enemies, being prepared for somebody to randomly walking through my door, etc. I silently step forward and sit at my kitchen table. I close my eyes, lean back, and savor it.

I know that this won't last very long. A couple of days ago the Hokage came back to my hospital room and asked me to help out at the academy until my team came back from the mission. Starting tomorrow. A feeling of dread settles in my stomach. Great, I ruined the moment for myself.

I don't want to teach a bunch of brats. They're loud, irritating, loud again, immature, loud, nosey, loud, ridiculous, loud, overly aggressive and opinionated, oh, did I mention loud?

I lean back in my chair and utter a familiar catchphrase: "what a drag…"

~0~

After a few hours of lazing around I finally decide to make myself dinner. I stand in the middle of my kitchen. Huh, it's been awhile since I fed myself.

Oh great. I'm going to be cooking with one arm. This will be interesting.

I guess that I'll make myself some sort of stew. And I'll just put random food that I find in it.

I move forward and open the fridge.

Uh oh…

Now I remember. I cleared all of the food that could rot out of my fridge. Ugh. If I want to make what I want I have to go shopping. But the problem is that I don't want to leave my apartment…

I guess that I'm having mashed potatoes with a bunch of spices and stuff for dinner.

I kick one of my cupboards open and reach down to grip one of the large pots. This is incredibly difficult with one arm…

With some struggle, I bring the pot to the sink. I switch on the tap and water begins pouring in. While it's filling up I go and find the potatoes. I take a couple and return to the sink. I switch the tap off and stare at the half-full pot. How do I get this to the stove?

I heave an enormous sigh and reach out to grip the handle. Once I begin lifting my right arm screams at the strain that it puts on my muscles. I hates this. I hate this so much.

I set the pot down and turn on the burner. I turn back around and reach into a drawer to take out the peeler. Oh. Peeling potatoes with one arm. I place the peeler back in the drawer. Maybe not…

~0~

With a loud huff I finally set a bowl of mashed potatoes on my table. You know what? Before I wasn't even mad at Kisame for almost chopping my arm off. But now the only thing that I can think about is revenge. It will be sweet. Maybe I'll leave a good scar. But it has to be even bigger than the scar that I'm going to get from this.

I shove a spoonful into my mouth aggressively and chew on the small bits of skin angrily. The scar should be on his stupid shark-like face. Maybe it could be a burn scar. Those ones are more noticeable…

I plot and eat in silence. When I finish I manage to wash my dishes with one hand. But I decide to leave them in the sink to dry because I'm not in the mood for that struggle.

I quietly head for my room, once I'm in I stare at the small bag on my bed. Beside it is my trench coat. I step forward and lift it up. I immediately groan when I see the large tear in it's sleeve. Faint bloodstains cover the entire thing. Aww, at least someone tried to wash it.

Somebody must have brought my bag here too. I check to see what's inside and blink in surprise when I find it empty. I look around before searching in my drawers. I'm even more surprised when I find everything that I packed in their usual spots within my room.

'Who did this…?' I stare at my neatly folded sleeping bag. An image of Minami flashes in my mind. Come to think of it, my home doesn't have any dust or any sign that nobody has lived here for several weeks. She must have been visiting here regularly to clean.

I smile faintly, my spite forgotten and glance out of my window.

'Thank you Minami…' I murmur in English.

~0~

Tap, tap!

I roll over in my bed with a groan. But I ignore it. It's probably nothing…

Tap, tap!

I slowly open a single eye, but I'm facing away from my window.

Tap, tap!

I open my other eye and glare at my wall. It's probably just a branch but it's annoying.

Tap, tap!

This time it's slightly louder than before. I narrow my eyes in frustration and finally roll over.

What I see makes my breath catch in my throats and my muscles stiffen. There is somebody outside of my window.

I stare, eyes wide at the figure. Why can't I sense them? I almost jump when they lift their hand and sign for me to stay quiet and go to the window. I hesitantly sit up and step off of my bed.

Now that I'm closer I recognize that whoever it is, is a member of Konoha's ANBU black ops. I finally reach the window and open it. Despite my efforts, my voice comes out as high pitched and nervous. "Wh-What do you want?"

The masked person seems to stare at me for a few moments. Well I think that they do, but I can't quite tell because of their mask. "Follow me." A masculine voice says emotionlessly before launching off of my window sill and standing to wait on another roof.

I blink at him before hesitantly before moving. I grab my ripped trench coat with my one useful arm before jumping after him.

~0~

A/N: this chapter was kind of all over the place and short. But I'll try to make it longer next time!

What do you think that this guy wants!? Who knows!?

Oh, by the way Happy New Year everyone!


	32. Chapter 31

Chapter 31:

"Who are you?" I ask hesitantly after about ten minutes of complete silence. We've almost reached the outskirts of Konoha…

The person ignores me for several minutes before finally answering. "I personally do not have a name. But if it helps, you can call me "Boar"." I raise a brow, the name matches his mask. But he doesn't have a real name…? Without any further explanation he continues to run.

He's going really fast… I can barely keep up…

He suddenly makes a sharp turn and I have to struggle to catch up. I breath a small sigh of relief when he finally slows down. But he slows to a stop. What? Have we reached wherever we're going?

He turns to me and I immediately stiffen. He seems like he's older than me. "If you can't keep up I could carry you." Eh!? I stare at him for a moment and laugh uncomfortably.

Oh, he's being serious…

"Umm… No thank you…?" For this guys information, I absolutely can keep up on my own.

He simply shrugs and starts running again. "As expected, your personality analysis stated that you wouldn't accept the help." Excuse me? I'm just wondering what he's talking about? I'm really confused right now?

"Where are we going?"

"You'll find out when we get there." I find that answer vague and not reassuring at all.

"Why are you getting me to follow you?" I try again.

"Because I'm supposed to." I narrow my eyes at the man. This is getting irritating. "Oh, by the way, watch out for the tree." He says without even looking at me.

"Wha-" Oh geeze! I barely manage to swerve out of the way. It takes me a few seconds to catch back up with "Boar".

"You have incredibly bad reflexes." Who even is this guy? Why does he feel the need to irritate me so much? I see him turn his head as if to look at me. "Oh, are you irritated?" I bristle slightly and narrow my eyes in annoyance. "Oh you are! Who knew that it would be so easy!"

"What?" I stare at him. Aren't members of the ANBU black ops supposed to be emotionless and all that? Why is this guy acting like this?

"I apologize, it's just that I haven't actually interacted with somebody with legitimate emotions before." Uhh… I am having a difficult time comprehending what he just said… "I was just curious." I don't know how to react. I don't know if I've ever been in a more socially strange situation in my life. Other than of course waking up in a world where I can't understand what everyone else is saying.

Suddenly I gasp and grip my head. A familiar burning ache fills my entire head, my ears ring, and my eyes go blurry. I stop and can't help but kneel while I clutch my head tightly. I try to look up but various images overlap my vision and I can't focus. I notice, based on his chakra signature that Boar has stopped beside me.

"There is a genjutsu over the entrance of where we're going. I was told that you were especially weak to it, I apologize for forgetting to warn you." Boar states calmly. Finally, ten seconds have passed and I aggressively throw the chakra away from my head. It smoothly passes through my chest and down to my right fist. I then bring my hand up, as I slam it down I see my blood vessels outlined with a glowing blue. But the second it makes contact with the tree it vanishes.

I slowly and shakily stand back up with my right hand lingering on my forehead. When I recover I look back up.

I stare at the sudden stairs which seem to just lead into the ground. It feels weird to be completely surrounded by forest and then all of a sudden there's something man made…

Boar jumps down from the tree and begins walking down it feels unnatural because of how silent his steps are. "You will have to learn how to properly deal with genjutsu. Or else someday you will be killed." Thanks captain obvious. "Anyways, follow me."

~0~

As I follow closely behind Boar so I don't get lost, I make direct eye contact with a pale boy who looks to be about my age as we pass by. He stares at me with dark eyes for the briefest of moments before continuing on his way without a single word.

We start to pass by more and more people. The majority look to be in their twenties. Every once in awhile some children will pass by. But it doesn't feel right. This dead silence. Even the children don't say a word. They'll look at me curiously but will just keep on walking.

'Where exactly am I…?' I think quietly. I try to focus on the sound of my footsteps to tune out the suffocating quiet… We continue to make sharp turns. I have absolutely no idea how to get out...

Suddenly the stone hallway opens to a large room. I stiffen and look down when I hear a metallic rattling beneath my feet.

Oh dear…

Below our small metal bridge I can't see the bottom. It just goes down to pitch blackness. Suddenly I find myself gripping the sides and my steps becoming more wobbly.

Meanwhile, Boar is walking like this is nothing. He pauses and looks back at me, "is there something wrong?"

"No." I take a careful step forward.

"Do you need help?"

"No." I continue to walk.

"Are you sure?"

"N-I mean yes."

"Ha, you almost said no." His laugh is the most fake laugh that I have ever heard. It sounds incredibly unnatural and forced.

We reach a point where our bridge meets with three others. Boar turns to the right and goes along that bridge next. I follow and force my steps to speed up so I can catch up.

We finish crossing the bridge much to my relief. We then go back to making sharp turns. We pass by more people who only give me a brief glance. And I try to remember all of the turns that we take. But it doesn't work out very well.

Suddenly, Boar stops outside of a door. He glances at me, and quietly slides open the door. "Danzo-sama, I brought her." Boar speaks in a completely monotonous voice. Danzo…? I recognize the name.

"Good work. Wait outside." Boar steps to the side and gestures for me to enter. Nerves flare in my chest. I have a bad feeling about this…

I stiffly step into the room and immediately glance back when I hear the door close behind me.

"Welcome, Latté Erin." He slightly mispronounces my last name but I ignore it when I look at him. Yes, I know this man. I remember that he doesn't trust me. I can't help but narrow my eyes slightly in distaste. Yes, the one who thinks that I'm a threat.

"...Why have you summoned me here?"

He chuckles slightly from his chair but looks at me intently. "Straight to the point just like that last time… But I do believe that you deserve to have an explanation, especially after being wakened this early in the morning." Wait… What time is it!? I didn't even check before I left my apartment. Despite this I listen to Danzo intently.

"It has come to my attention of how exceptional of a shinobi you are. I can only imagine how impressive you would have been if you began your training at a younger age… You might have been at least five times as powerful and skilled as you currently are…" Where is he going with this…? I raise a single brow as he rambles on and on about my potential. Don't tell me that he made me get up in the middle of the night just to talk about how "impressive" I am. I mean, come on, don't we all know that Erin is amazing and all-powerful and deserves recognition? But this is annoying.

"-This is why I'm offering to train you so you can reach your full potential as a shinobi." My eyes widen in surprise and I stare at the old man. "You would train in this facility along with many other recruits. You would have various mentors to teach you various subjects and skills. Including ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, fuinjutsu, kenjutsu, etc." I almost gape, this sounds like an amazing chance…

Danzo looks at me expectantly, "uhh-I-I, err, except your invitation Danzo…-sama." I can't help but stutter and I feel a small smile creeping onto my face. Wow… I'm shocked. This is an awesome opportunity. Or at least it sounds like it.

Danzo gives me a small smile and nods. "Follow the Root member who brought you here. He will show you around. And before you leave there is one more thing…"

~0~

I let out a tired sigh as I struggle to slip on my violet sweater. I'm not wearing my trench coat because of the enormous tear… That would definitely raise some questions when I help at the school. I'm already going to be raising enough questions when I show up with my left arm in a sling…

My sigh become more irritated when I run my tongue along the roof of my mouth, again… It slides and burns painfully because of the chakra that I'm not used to. Before I left, they put a seal on me so that I physically can't tell anyone about Root. They said that I would get used to it. Even if I am hypersensitive to chakra. But I hate this so much it makes me want to scream and punch something. It itches, it stings, it burns, it aches, it feels like it's on fire, it also feels like it has a million needles sticking into it.

I'm also not supposed to go back until I don't have to wear my sling anymore. When I'm cleared Boar will show up in front of the Uchiha compound to lead me to the entrance.

I turn to my mirror and aggressively brush my dark red hair with my right, working arm. My hair's getting longer, I'm thinking about just letting it grow out. I think that I look better with more length anyways. But still, I should trim it so it doesn't get any split ends-

"Gah!" I drop my brush and grimace in pain. "Damnit…" I whisper in annoyance, the chakra in the seal flared up again. Whatever, I was finished brushing anyways. I briefly pause to sweep my long bangs out of my eyes before heading out of the door.

~0~

Oww… As I stand outside of the academy the only thing that I can think about is the burning…

Come on Erin, get it together.

I stride forward, I'm an hour early. I want to know exactly where I'm helping out and what I'm supposed to do.

As I step in an odd feeling fills me, this reminds me so much of when I first went to the academy. I glance around and immediately spot Iruka.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei." I greet and mentally hope that the seal doesn't affect my speech at all.

The man blinks in surprise and looks up at me from his clipboard. "Erin! You're here early!" Good. He didn't notice.

I shrug casually and lean on one leg. "Yeah, I wanted to know where I would be helping and everything."

"Oh! Well, good news! You're going to be helping me out with my classes!" I blink in surprise but it ends with a grimace when my seal flares again. Iruka's smile turns into a frown.

Uh oh, I chuckle awkwardly and pat my left arm. "Oh, my arm's just flaring up again… It's nothing to worry about." I maintain eye contact with Iruka. After a few moments Iruka's frown deepens.

"Are you sure you're alright? I don't think that it should be hurting by now. Also, you seem a little pale. Is everything fine? Our medic-nins are amazing but mistakes do happen-"

"Don't worry! I'll be fine!" I interrupt immediately. Iruka still continues to give me a look of concern.

"But still, you should go to the hospital after class today and get it checked out…" I sigh and stand through a very long, and very boring lecture.

At the end I give a tired sigh, "I'll give it a week." Iruka hesitantly nods. "So, what kinds of things am I going to help out with while I'm here?"

"Oh! Really simple things. I might ask you to go and get something from another room or watch the class while I leave. With a few things I might also ask you to help teach the class like showing an example in ninjutsu and taijutsu. Not to mention ninja tools…" He goes off again on yet another long explanation. Halfway through we begin walking down the hallway and Iruka finally finishes when we reach the classroom.

"Have you got everything?"

"Yes."

He smiles enthusiastically, "alright then! Class should start in about ten minutes! Would it be alright if you went to the library and got these books for me?" He hands me a slip of paper with the names of the books and I give a small nod.

I turn around and walk down the hallway with a sigh of annoyance. At least Iruka's talking gave me something to distract me from my discomfort but now I have nothing.

"Well, well. Could that be Haughty Spotty?" I stiffen and turn around. Oh no. I didn't even take into consideration if anyone would recognize. These brats are from my old class. They must have been sent back to the academy.

One of them smirks in an annoying way. "What did I say guys? I knew that she wasn't gonna make it."

"Yeah, we all new! Nobody can just show up at the academy for three months and actually pass."

"And besides, squads only have three members. Not including the jonin sensei."

"They were probably just trying to be nice and said that-"

"Ten laps."

"What?" The group stares at me blankly.

I narrow my eyes angrily and straighten my back. This doesn't help very much because I'm still about the same size as the twelve year olds. Hey… I've actually grown. Before I was shorter than them. "Ten laps around the entire academy. Believe it or not, asshats, I'm actually currently a sensei in the academy."

They all gape. "Y-You can't do that! If we knew that you were-!"

"It isn't alright to insult anybody in that way. I'll give you three notes telling your teachers why you'll be late for class."

"But-"

"Twenty laps. And if you don't do them, I'll personally go to your classrooms and tell your teachers, and they will tell your parents." All of their faces are bright red with anger. But they take their notes and head in the direction of the front doors.

~0~

I drop the books on Iruka's desk. This was incredibly hard because I only had one arm.

Today so far has been a fantastic day. Having to deal with constant pain, dealing with a few annoying brats, being incapable of using one arm, being sleep deprived. I wonder what the rest of the day has in store for me?

Iruka smiles, "just in time! The bell should be ringing right about…now." On cue a familiar sound fills the entire room.

~0~

It takes about ten minutes but the class shows up. Each of the kids gives me a curious look and several of them whisper to their friends quietly once they find their seats. I've got to admit it. This class is far more well behaved than mine was. That's at least what I think until three kids barge in through the door.

"NOTHING CAN STOP TEAM-Wait, who the heck are you?" I give the loud boy in front of me an unimpressed look.

"Please, find your seat, Konohamaru…" Iruka sighs. The three children immediately calm down and move to three seats. Finally, Iruka stands. "Good morning everyone! As you have noticed, we have a guest here today!" Muttering spreads through the entire class and I stand expressionlessly.

"This is Erin-sensei! She'll be helping around in the classroom for about a month!"

"Hi, Erin-sensei!" The children chirp enthusiastically. I blink in surprise at being called "sensei". It feels strange…

Suddenly a kid raises their hand. Iruka nods to them. "What happened to your arm?"

I glance down at it… What should I say…? "Well, I was on a mission and it got hit by a sword." That technically wasn't a lie.

Whispers of excitement fill the entire classroom. "Was the guy who hit you super strong."

I laugh slightly, "unbelievably strong."

A little girl raises her hand. "Why do you have little spots on your face?"

I raise a brow. "Because my father had them. They passed down to me, and by the way, they're called freckles." The kids try to say "freckles" but each and every one of them mispronounce it horribly.

Konohamaru raises his hand. "Why do you talk so slowly?"

"Japanese isn't my original language. It's my accent." This raises many more questions. But Iruka stands and raises his hand to calm the class down.

"Well class, I think that it might be time for us to get started. Today we're going to begin with some math, then we'll move onto shuriken practice…"

I glance out of the window and spot the three boys running desperately. I smirk as one face plants from exhaustion.

Maybe teaching will serve as a good distraction from the pain of my seal.

~0~

A/N: DUN DUN DUUUUN! Erin is officially a member of Root! (I know, what a surprise, right!?)

What do you guys think of Boar? I know that members of Root aren't supposed to have such strong personalities but Boar has some background that you'll find out about soon. It'll explain why he acts the way that he acts. (And by the way the pale boy that Erin made eye contact with was Sai).

Here are some random fun facts about Erin!:

-Erin has a minor fear of intimacy

-Erin's favourite food isn't actually dango. It's chocolate chip cookie in a mug (it's actually the best thing that ever existed, I'll probably put down the recipe in the next chapters authors note).

-Erin is already at chunin level.

-Erin forgot that she was fifteen again.

-Erin has only ever apologized and truly meant it to Minami.

-Erin hasn't truly cried for the entire time she has been in the Narutoverse. She has only shed a few tears out of frustration or in distress. That means that she hasn't had a full cry in an entire year.

-Erin's zodiac sign is Aries, her ascendant is Sagittarius, and her moon sign is Aquarius.

-Erin isn't very fond of dogs (there will be a background thing to explain this soon).

-Erin is absolutely terrified of Itachi Uchiha and Orochimaru.

-The only people who have currently earned Erin's full respect are Hatake Kakashi and Hoshigaki Kisame (even if she might not act like it).

-Erin thinks of her teammates and all of the Konoha twelve as children.

-Erin hasn't attacked anyone with the intent to kill or at her full power yet.

-Erin is a fantastic liar.

So… What do you think of these random facts?


	33. Chapter 32

A/N: congratulations PokeballPoker, you're my 100th follower for this story!

~0~

Chapter 32:

"Guys! You're supposed to be working!" I snap in frustration. Everyone was being quiet until Iruka left to get a few textbooks…

It's almost been two weeks now and I've had just about enough of this.

The kids ignore me and continue chatting loudly, sometimes even shouting at a friend from across the room. I let out an exhausted sigh. An idea flashes into my mind after a moment of complete hopelessness. I smirk slightly and stand up straight from the front of the class.

"Who wants to watch me set a tree on fire!?" It takes about ten seconds… But the message slowly spreads throughout the class.

"...what?" Konohamaru finally asks.

"If you guys are good and quiet, you can watch me perform a fire technique." I state calmly, "maybe if you're good for several days I'll show you even more."

Excited murmurs fill the classroom and I immediately interrupt. "But only if you're quiet!" They all fall silent and I watch with a smirk as they get to work. I yawn and stretch with my useful arm. "If you need my help with anything, just raise your hand." I then quietly move to sit at the desk at the front. I pull out a piece of paper and a pencil before getting to work. It's been awhile since I've just drawn for fun.

I begin to make marks across the paper. I don't even know what I'm drawing. Suddenly, an idea flashes in my mind and the random curves begin to take shape. I move my pencil in a way so that I can make small and delicate chains… Followed by a large, black scale. Around the scale I draw wisps of black chakra swirling.-

I glance up and spot somebody's hand. I fold the page and put it into my pocket before walking over to them. "What is it?"

One of Konohamaru's friends, Moegi if I remember right. Leans over her page with a look of pure frustration. "I don't understand! Why does the chakra network even exist!?" I blink in surprise, isn't that kind of obvious in this world…?

"Well, it's said that people need chakra to survive." Wrong, unless I'm some sort of super freak. But I kind of am in this world. You know, since I'm not necessarily from this world. "Also, it allows us to perform amazing skills and jutsu." But, do we really NEED jutsu? I highly doubt that chakra exists for the soul purpose to blow each other up with it.

But...my world is without chakra. We created our own things to blow each other up with. Chakra seems to be just more environmentally friendly. But also, chakra means that people are carrying a deadly weapon with them at all times… But isn't the US like that too?

Moegi smiles at me, "thank you, Erin-sensei!"

"Hn." I give a small nod before turning and making my way back to the desk.

There are only a few more people who need help before Iruka finally comes back.

The man gives a small gasp in genuine surprise as he looks around. "Whoa, it's so quiet in here!" He whispers excitedly and immediately hear a few giggles. "Wow Erin, you must be some sort of god of class!" I uncomfortably give a small smile and sheepishly scratch the back of my head.

"I don't know about that…" Does it count if you used bribery to control the class?

"Nonsense! Anyways class, it's time for some taijutsu training! Up, up! Let's go outside!" Children stand obediently and quickly leave the classroom. Once they're all out of sight, Iruka turns to me with a serious look. "What's your secret?"

I stare at him blankly. "What?"

"How did you get them to listen? Throughout all of my teaching years, I have yet to get a single class that focussed. What did you do?" He looks and sounds a little bit desperate now. It's kind of sad…

"Well…" I pause for dramatic effect, "I just used my fantastic charm!" Iruka's face abruptly goes blank and I can't help but smirk.

"Hehe, just kidding… I actually promised that if they were good, I'd set a tree on fire with a jutsu." Only silence follows. Iruka nods slightly and thoughtfully and he begins to walk out of the classroom. I quickly follow.

He only answers once we're outside. "You know elemental ninjutsu?"

I nod and silently watch the class interact with each other.

"Yes. I know four."

"Four!?"

I jump at his sudden loud voice. Jeez Iruka, it's just ninjutsu. Nothing abnormal. "You're telling me that you already know four fire jutsu!?"

"Erm, well… Actually each one is a different element… I know one jutsu for each element, except for wind."

"...Who taught you?"

"Kakashi-sensei." I don't know why he's making that face now…

Now there's a look of pure disapproval on his face. It's funny… It's actually similar to how some of the villagers look at me…

"Erin, why don't you take the rest of the day off? I think that I can handle it from here." I blink in surprise. Did I do something wrong?

"Uh, are you sure? I could definitely stay for a little bit lo-"

"No! I'm sure that I'll be fine! Just enjoy your free time!" I stare at him in confusion. I finally nod with a small smile and comply.

But as I walk away a frown takes the place of my fake smile.

~0~

I stare down at Tales of a Gutsy Ninja. Before I wasn't actually able to read it but now I can. How is the main character in this book named Naruto? Huh, what an amazing coincidence. When was this book published again?

I flip through the pages and stop at the back. Huh, not very long before Naruto was born. This is interesting.

I examine the author's face. Yeah, that's definitely Jiraiya. Well then… I shrug it off and flip back to the page that I was previously on. It must have just been something in the plot that I hadn't gotten to with Conner…

'Conner…'

The small voice whispers in my head. That's right. He would be eighteen by now. I abruptly close my book and look at the leaves waving in the wind above me. I wonder how he's doing, but I make an effort to not think of him very much. Speaking of him being eighteen…

That's right, I'm fifteen.

I guess that I just forgot my birthday because he wasn't here to remind me. There was never anything special about the day in general. It's just that Conner would always wish me a happy birthday and give me a present. They weren't much, a lot of the time they were homemade. Then, sometimes he would bake cupcakes if the house had the ingredients. Of course he'd share them with Beth, our mother. He was too nice, she didn't deserve them.

A faint smile crosses my face and I watch as a couple of birds fly across my vision.

I feel a sharp twinge on my tongue and I frown in irritation. But the voice in my head says that the discomfort is worth it for the training.

'What would Conner think about me joining the foundation?'

He probably wouldn't like it at all. ANBU work is incredibly dangerous and the same goes for their training. I'm assuming that you have to be both mentally and physically strong.

I jump in surprise when I hear a familiar ring. I placed myself somewhat close to the school so at the end of the day I could actually show the class my jutsu. I don't want them to have any excuses to try and guilt me into things. I hop up, pocket my book, and jump onto the tree branches.

It doesn't take me very long to reach the school. "Oi!" I greet Konohamaru and his friends. When they spot me they immediately grin in excitement.

"Guys! Erin-sensei came back!" Several other kids turn around in excitement and I soon find myself completely surrounded by a large group of kids who are around half of my height. And that's saying something.

"You're really gonna show us a fire jutsu Erin-sensei!?"

"You can actually do that!?"

"That's so cool!"

I don't really know what to do. I can't help but blush slightly and I feel my ears grow hot with embarrassment. "A-Alright guys, follow me this way." As I walk I feel like I'm being followed by a miniature army. They all talked and giggled in excitement. I wonder how they can be so excited and content just at the thought of watching a tree being set on fire?

'Some people just want to watch the world burn.' A smirk quirks up my lips slightly at the thought.

I stop in the middle of a clearing with a conveniently placed tree in the middle. "Alright everyone, stand back." Everyone listens and quickly form a wide circle around me. Once I'm sure that they're all at a safe distance before taking a deep breath and widening my stance. I slowly lift my left arm out of its sling it moves slowly and slightly stiffly. But this should be fine, the doctor said that I can start doing light exercises.

I finally flash through hand seals and draw chakra from my necklace. I have to make this jutsu big and impressive. "Fire Release: Searing Embers!" I then take a deep breath, pausing to bring my chakra into my lungs and throat. The burning changes slightly as it changes from chakra into sparks. I blow.

The children "ooo," and "ahh," at the scene. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot an unlucky leaf which was drifting in the breeze burst into flames. I'm not necessarily breathing fire. I'm breathing extremely hot air that makes everything that touches it burst into flames.

I finally stop when I'm out of breath. I cough slightly to make sure that all of the hot air is out. I hear clapping and shouts of excitement surrounding me. I look up and see a pile of ash in front of me. Wow… I really didn't hold back.

I stand and straighten my back as I place my arm back in my sling. "Ok everyone, it's time for you to go home." Everyone nods before quickly making themselves scarce. Once they're all gone I cough again, even harder this time. The jutsu made my seal flare up…

Suddenly, a shiver runs up my spine and I whip around. I breath a small sigh of relief when I see nothing but trees… But I know that that isn't a reason to relax. I narrow my eyes slightly but my hope of looking fully confident dissipates when I cough harder.

"Who's there?" I growl after I'm done. Only silence follows. I can't sense anyone. I finally turn around and give a brief glance over my shoulder. I narrow my eyes suspiciously before making my way back the way that I came.

~0~

"Well, if it isn't little Numa no Atama." I pause in my walking as I hear some familiar boys voice.

"That isn't my name! Like I said before, it's Midori!" I hear I high pitched voice shout in irritation. I glance back to see the three boys completely surrounding a little girl with moss green hair. Her cheeks are puffed out in anger and I notice that she's carrying a large stack of books.

One of the boys laughs and leans forward slightly. "Say what you want, Numa no Atama!" I see the girl shrink slightly, she tries to back up but only runs into another boy.

"G-Go away!"

"Make us!" One of them laughs, reaches forwards, and flicks her hard in the forehead. My eyes narrow in anger, how dare they!? It may have taken a few seconds, but now I've translated their little nickname. "Numa no Atama," means swamp head. I speedily walk up.

"What is the meaning of this?" I growl angrily. The three jump in surprise and turn around. Their smirks drop and they all narrow their eyes at me.

"We aren't scared of you."

"You don't need to be. There just has to be a mutual respect." This only seems to aggravate them more.

"You aren't even a real teacher! You're just being Iruka-sensei's assistant!"

I raise a brow, "are you saying that you shouldn't respect another person in general? Well, the way that you're acting I'm beginning to not see you as people…"

"What does that even mean!?"

"By the way, we aren't going to run anymore laps! I sprained my ankle last time!"

"Oh, does it still hurt?"

"Yes!"

"Good. Clearly you deserve it." They all gape at me as I continue. "I can see that you all obviously have enough time on your hands to bother this girl. You may as well go and practice your ninjutsu instead. I know that you need it." I finish with venom, I turn around and gesture for the girl to follow with my free hand. I quickly sense her beside me.

Wait for it…

I sense all three of the boys coming at me quickly. I wait several seconds and duck just in time to avoid being punched in the back of my head. Whoever it was immediately stumbles and trips past me. I step to the side to avoid my seconds attacker. I'm aware of the little girl running to avoid the fight. I duck again to avoid the third, but this time I lightly grip the boy's wrist. With very little effort, I use his momentum against him in a take down.

I hold his wrist firmly and I notice his face contorted in pain. I promptly let go. He immediately scrambles to his feet and without even glancing back, runs. His friends quickly follow him.

When I finally see them disappear I turn to where I last saw the girl. "Hey, are you alright…?-" I drift off when I see her.

The girl makes eye contact with me and suddenly bursts into tears. I blink in surprise when she runs forward and wraps her small arms around my legs. "Th-Th-Thank you s-so mu-u-uch!" I feel my pant knees becoming damp because of her tears. She's really small, I'd say that she's about five or six years old…

I silently and gently grip her shoulders so I can kneel down. I plan on just talking to her and trying to comfort her that way, but she has different plans. She immediately wraps her arms around my neck instead. I abruptly stiffen uncomfortably as warning bells ring within my head. So now I'm stuck in an uncomfortable position with a child clinging onto me. Now what?

A small part of my mind is screaming for me to push her away. It's screaming about how close she is to my throat and is telling me about how the last time somebody was this close they almost choked me to death. All of a sudden my chest tightens and I feel my hands twitching slightly.

I take a deep breath. She's just a kid. I know that just forcing her away is cruel. And to add to that it reminds me of my parents…

I'll never be like them. I hated them and I still do.

So I kneel down and let her cry on my shoulder.

Eventually, she finishes and lets go. I force a faint smile onto my face, "are you good now?" She wipes away her tears and nods. I stand and reach out my right hand. "Alright, let's get you home." She immediately grabs it.

She tugs at me arm and points, "it's this way!" She says with a slightly more cheerful note. How can somebody get over something that easily?

After a few minutes of silence I decide to speak. "How long have those boys been bothering you?" I notice that she slows down slightly.

"Since I joined the academy…" She murmurs quietly, I almost don't hear her.

"How long have you been in the academy?" I ask calmly.

"...Two months…"

A flare of anger towards the boys rises in my chest, but I make sure that I answer calmly. "Well, if they bother you again you can tell me. I should be helping at the academy for a few more weeks."

"O-Oh, ok!" There are a few moments of silence, "what's your name? I'm Midori!"

"My name's Erin."

"That's a weird name."

"I know." She suddenly stops.

"This is my house! Bye Erin-san!" I watch as she bolts, closing the door behind her. I let out a quiet sigh, and then move on.

~0~

I need to buy myself some food…

I let out an enormous sigh… Why does life have to work like this…?

I mean, I've already gone outside and interacted with people today. For several hours, actually. So why must I be punished?

I silently kick a pebble as I head in the direction of the market. I'm exceedingly bored. I wish that I could just go home and…-

Is that Iruka over there?

I blink in surprise when I spot him walking with purpose. 'Where is he going?' I instinctively step behind a corner to make sure that he doesn't spot me. The way that he's moving is suspicious…

He's almost out of my sight. I glance across from me and switch with a conveniently placed barrel. Next I switch with a stick. Next is a pebble.

I continue this process for a while. But eventually I mentally curse as he walks into the Hokage's office building.

"Haven't you ever heard of the term, "curiosity killed the cat"?" I swear I jump at least two feet into the air before whipping around.

I narrow my eyes when I recognize the face. Kabuto…

"Yes, I indeed have heard that term before. But obviously I'm choosing to ignore it." I turn around, "go away. You're distracting me." I'm not going to hide the fact that I want absolutely nothing to do with him.

"Oh…" His voice is filled with fake hurt. Well, others might think that it's genuine but I know better. "Erin-chan, why do you have to be so cruel? I was just trying to be nice…" Get away from me, you filthy snake. Heh, how ironic, he literally works for a human snake.

"Even when I was planning on helping you out…" What? I turn around just as he shrugs. "Well, I guess that I must be in my way. Since I'm so, "distracting"." He slowly turns around. Oh man… I'm gonna regret this. But if he can help me…

But is it even worth it? Iruka could just be up to some boring stuff. But why was he acting so nervous?

I let out an enormous sigh. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to waste all of my time figuring out how to listen in on what Iruka is going to say and having a large chance of failing. But like I said, there's a large chance of failing if I try to figure it out by myself.

"Wait…" Kabuto stops without turning around. "So… You know how to get in there undetected…?"

He turns with an annoying smirk on his face. "Indeed I do!" Ugh, he just got his way… I hate him so, so much. Suddenly his smirk drops into a small frown and he tilts his head in a "confused" motion. "But, didn't you say that you wanted me to go away?"

Ugh, I freaking hate him so much. Have I already said that? "Well, I uhh…-"

"Apology accepted!" Oh my god. "Follow me!" He jumps off. I quickly follow and slow down once I'm right behind him.

"By the way, please don't call me "Erin-chan"."

~0~

"I don't like this very much…" I whisper quietly. Somehow Kabuto managed to get both of us in a weird place in between the rooftop and the flat roof from the inside of the Hokage's office. "Doesn't the Hokage have a bunch of ANBU guards?"

"Meh, we'll be fine. I've put a genjutsu over the both of us so they can't see us, or hear us." I let out a sigh, I can't believe that I'm doing this. Whatever Iruka is doing is none of my business. But I suppose that it's too late to back out now.

Huh, actually if Kabuto actually was genin level the ANBU would really have to step up their game. Along with literally everyone else in this village. Kabuto caught me following Iruka while, Iruka, the chunin, didn't sense a thing. And Kabuto is confident enough in his genjutsu to sneak right into a Hokage's office. A FREAKING HOKAGE'S OFFICE.

"Hey Erin-san, do you sense Iruka-sensei?" Oh right, I close my eyes briefly before taking the lead.

"He's in a room with Hokage-sama." Kabuto "hn's" in acknowledgment.

We quickly reach the spot that's right above where Iruka and the Hokage are. "They're right here." I state flatly. Well, now what? I can't hear them or anything.

I blink in surprise when Kabuto flashes through hand seals. He then places his right hand onto the wooden floor. Suddenly it looks as if a small portion of the floor completely disappears and I can now see and hear what the Hokage and Iruka are saying.

"They can't see us."

"Wait, how do you know how to do such advanced techniques?" I ask casually.

"Oh, my team's based around spy work." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OH THE IRONY! OH MY GOD! THAT'S HILARIOUS! IT'S GREAT BECAUSE HE'S ACTUALLY SPYING IN KONOHA RIGHT NOW!

I keep a dead straight face as I think this. I need to listen. "-I believe that Kakashi's being irresponsible!" I raise a brow, what did you just say about a high level jonin who is feared by nations?

"Calm down, Iruka. Kakashi knows what he's doing. He clearly saw Erin's talent and decided to help her grow stronger." Aww, thanks Hiruzen. Actually no thanks. That's kind of embarrassing. "And I think that Kakashi might see himself in Erin. Of course he'd want to help her grow. It's just like how you took Naruto under your wing."

"But Hokage-sama, it's completely different. Erin is foreign, there isn't any proof that she's actually loyal to Konoha!" I stare at Iruka… I-I thought that he was different… I thought that he would think of me as a friend at least. But apparently not, I narrow my eyes in anger. He's just like the civilians. "And besides, four jutsu? Each from different chakra natures? This is dangerous!-"

Suddenly the Hokage stands from his chair with his hands on the table. "I personally trust Erin! She may act differently from most other girls her age but I believe that she's genuinely a good person! She may not be from Konoha but so far she has protected her comrades with her life! I believe that she has The Will of Fire within her even if she isn't aware! It is my duty as the Third Hokage to treat each and every member of Konoha equally and I will view her as one of my own children!"

I gape in shock… He really believes that? I… I don't believe it.

Iruka has now been silenced. I think that we all just saw a new side of the Hokage. A vicious, dangerous, and loyal one.

"I-I… I apologize Hokage-sama." The old man sits back down.

"Apology accepted. Iruka, your view is common among the village. Believe me, at first I was skeptical. But after this last mission, I fully believe in Erin's loyalty." Iruka gives a small nod. "You may take your leave." Iruka, who's still shocked immediately complies.

I silently watch as the Hokage goes back to his paperwork. He couldn't have meant it. He was suspicious of me in the hospital. But, why would he defend me like that? Maybe he was serious… No. I don't believe it.

"Well… That was something worth hearing!" I jump, I forgot that Kabuto was there. Oops.

"We should probably get out of here."

~0~

"Now what are you gonna do? I heard that you're helping out with Iruka's class until your team comes back from your mission, isn't it gonna be awkward now?" Kabuto does have a point. I'm actually-really angry at Iruka…

I shrug casually, "I guess that I'll just have to pretend that nothing happened." I pause, "by the way, thanks for the help. I'm glad that I know about, well… What happened." Kabuto nods with a look of understanding.

"Well, I should be on my way. See you around!" I give a small wave as he walks off.

I turn and finally head for the market. What should I do about Iruka now…? I genuinely liked him as a person but now…

I'm royally pissed at him. Apparently he's just like everyone else.

A strong and vicious anger floods through me. I can't believe him, I thought that he was sympathetic, and kind and caring.

I never should have given him the small amount of trust and respect that he had. My right hand balls up into a fist and I shove it into one of my pockets.

I've reached the market now and as per usual some people are giving me some stares. I easily ignore them, they aren't important and they don't add or take away any value to my life.

I understand that many people within this village don't completely trust me but Iruka…?

Why?

Maybe I shouldn't even know. That would make me feel better. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. But would I rather never know that somebody who I considered a friend disliked me or would I rather know that somebody disliked me but have it create tension?

Oh, I just realized something. Kabuto, that freaking weasel. Since he helped me out I owe him. And to add to that now that I know the way that many people in the village exactly feel about me it should encourage me to leave. Right to Orochimaru. And, he was acting as if we were friends. He's trying to slither his way into my group of friends to reach Sasuke and I. Possibly even Naruto.

Moral of this story: don't trust anyone.

"Hey, Erin!" Oh great, more people. I turn tiredly and spot Choji and Shikamaru heading in my direction. Well, I guess that those two are fine to be around. "It's been awhile!" Choji greets with enthusiasm.

"Yeah." I plaster a fake smile on my face and Shikamaru immediately raises a brow.

"You don't have to smile like that. We know that you're dead inside."

"Thanks." My voice promptly becomes more monotonous. "How'd you guess?"

"The look of pure disgust that you subconsciously gave when you heard somebody say your name." Shikamaru says with a lazy shrug. I almost laugh, oh Shikamaru, you know me so well.

Choji blinks in surprise when he glances down at my arm. "What happened!?"

Oh geez, what should I tell them? I'm not supposed to tell my genin friends very much about it… So I decide to answer his question honestly. "I'm not supposed to tell you guys very much. But I can tell you that somebody hit me with a giant sword."

"What!? You're already on those kinds of missions!?" Choji practically gapes.

"No, it's just that our client lied about the actual ranking of the mission." And I almost died, but you don't need to know that…

"Huh, he must have been desperate." States Shikamaru.

"Yeah, he was.-"

"Shikamaru, Choji! We're all finished here, let's go home!" I glance towards the source of the sound and I spot a plump woman with short brown hair waving, beside her is a smaller woman with her hair in a long ponytail.

"Oh, we've gotta go! See ya Erin!" Choji obediently jogs to who I'm assuming his mother is. Shikamaru slowly follows after with a small wave.

Finally, I turn around. I'm finally sure that I can just go and get groceries and-

"Hey Erin!" Damnit.

I turn around again at the sound of Chogi's voice. "Do you wanna come and eat dinner with us? We have plenty of food!" In all honesty, no. I just want to be alone. I would PAY to be left alone for the rest of the day.

But I give a small and fake smile in the direction of the two mothers since it was probably their idea. "I'd love to."

~0~

"So what's it like to have… Those particular people on your squad?" Asks Shikamaru as he watches the clouds. Right now we're in Choji's backyard, we're waiting for dinner to be ready.

"Mah, it can be annoying sometimes but usually it's fine. Naruto's alright, Sakura is usually cool as long as Sasuke isn't around, Sasuke… Is basically the same as he was in the academy." I glance around, damn this backyard is awesome. They have a pond with koi and they have a few trees and it's large. Oh, it would be nice to be rich.

"Who's your sensei?" Asks Choji, for once he doesn't have a bag of chips in one of his hands. He asked for one but his mother said that he'd spoil his supper.

"His name is Hatake Kakashi."

"What!? Whoa! Hatake Kakashi!? As in The Copy Ninja Kakashi!?" Choji immediately reacts with excitement.

"Yes." He immediately launches into many questions.

Once he's finally finished, I finally get a chance to change the subject. "So, how many missions have you guys been on?"

"Uhh, I think only ten. We spend a lot of time just training." I give a small nod, well, now I don't know what to say or talk about. So I silently watch the koi swim through the pond. Choji seems fine with this, well of course he'd be used to it. Shikamaru's his best friend after all.

After a while I'm really glad that I'm not wearing by trench coat. The dark grey would absorb way too much heat from me staying in the sun. Right now I'm even feeling dread for tomorrow since I know for a fact that I'm going to get a sunburn which will then turn into more freckles. I won't tan through. Oh the joys of being a redhead. But I don't say anything because I don't want to interrupt Shikamaru and Choji's cloud watching…

Oh great, now I feel the familiar burning of my dark red hair absorbing the heat.

I kind of feel like falling asleep…

I shake my head to keep myself awake. You know what? Konoha's great and everything but currently I wish that I woke up in somewhere colder. I would PAY to be somewhere that snowed. Surprisingly it doesn't even snow here even in the winter. They get freezing rain instead. Well I guess that in some really lucky years it could snow. But that's only a very small possibility.

"Dinner's ready!" I jump out of my overheat trance and glance behind me. Ha, Shikamaru actually fell asleep, he rolls over with a groan while Choji sits up.

I glance up at the sky, how long have we been out here?

"Shikamaru, Erin, are you guys ever gonna come and eat!?" I let out an enormous sigh and stand.

I silently enter the house along with Shikamaru. Oh, Choji's and Shikamaru's fathers showed up while we were outside. Fantastic, the last time I saw Shikamaru's father was when I first woke up in this world.

Unnecessary anxiety suddenly flares up in my stomach and chest. Great this is just great. Why did I even agree to this after such an emotionally exhausting day? Do Shikaku and what's his name? Choza, feel the same way as Iruka and apparently a large majority of the people in this village?

Shikaku turns his head slightly and makes direct eye contact. I can't help but stare back at his calculating look.

"Uhm… Good evening, Nara-san, Akimichi-san." I greet awkwardly.

Shikaku grunts and turns back around. "Good evening, I notice that your Japanese has improved by a small amount." It takes me a moment. Oh hahaha, I get it.

"Let's all sit and eat!" I manage to beat everyone to the seat to Choji's right. Shikamaru's mother places herself beside me which makes me uncomfortable. I blink in confusion when everyone other than me puts their hands together and thanks some sort of powerful being or something for the food.

Then everyone takes their chopsticks and starts dishing up…

"Oi, Choji!" I jump at the loud and cheerful voice of Choza. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" I find myself shrink in my seat. I glance to my left to see Choji with his face stuffed with food.

He takes a second to chew, "oh, Tou-san this is Erin. Erin this is my Tou-san." I give a small nod in greeting but look down.

"You could just call me Choza, Erin-chan!" I stiffen briefly, I don't want him to add "chan" to my name but also… He's Choji's father. What am I supposed to do?

"Actually she prefers just being called "Erin" or "Erin-san"." I look over and spot Shikamaru, I can't help but send him a small smile of gratitude.

"Oh, sorry Erin-san!" I blink at Choza.

"It's fine…"

"Aren't you going to eat, dear?" Asks Choji's mother and I glance down at my plate. Oh, I haven't even dished up yet.

I allow myself to zone out as I eat while the others have their own conversations. I quickly finish eating and silently listen to what their talking about. Choji and Shikamaru-mostly Choji were telling their fathers about their boring genin missions. The mothers were just talking about the latest gossip. All in all, pretty boring.

"-Ino's going through this HUGE matchup phase, it's getting annoying." I glance at Shikamaru, "seriously, if she thinks that some stuff on her face is going to make Sasuke like her she's wrong." He leans back with a huge sigh, "it's so troublesome. She keeps on expecting us to compliment it every single day. I'm looking forward to when she gets over it."

Without thinking I speak. "She's probably not going to stop wearing makeup. Also, she might just be wearing it for her own enjoyment." They all pause and blink at me. "Personally if I started wearing makeup or something I wouldn't be wearing it to impress a guy. I'd be wearing it to stare at my reflection every time I passed by a window."

All four give me a strange look and I slightly regret speaking up. "I don't think that I'll ever understand women… What a drag." Choza starts laughing along with Choji. Shikaku gives me a strange look. I feel my ears grow hot with embarrassment.

Suddenly I flinch slightly as my seal flares up. Oh no. I hope that they didn't notice. I glance up, I immediately know that Shikaku noticed.

I laugh awkwardly and rub my left arm. "My arm, I exercised it a bit today. I guess that it's just sore…" Oh no. He isn't buying it… a flare of pain fills my entire mouth this time. I grimace and stiffen. "Actually… It's starting to hurt a lot now… I think I need to go home. I'm so sorry, thank you for the meal…"

I know that this is a rude way to leave and everything, but my flare up has given me a perfect excuse to leave.

"Oh, are you sure you're alright? You could stay here for the night if you're feeling too bad…" Choji's mom immediately offers.

"You're too kind, but I think that I'll be fine. I just need to get some rest." I stand.

"Well, alright then. Shikamaru, Choji, you two should walk Erin home."

"Seriously, I don't need to be walked home."

"She's right Kaa-san, Erin could probably either of us in a fight with one arm. She doesn't need anyone to walk her home." Shikamaru backs me up.

"Oh well… Goodbye Erin-san!" I give a small wave before heading for the front door.

I pause to give an enormous fake smile before closing the door behind me.

I walk until I reach the end of the Akimichi district. Then I run and jump from building to building to make sure that I don't run into anybody else.

~0~

A/N: OH MY GOD IM SO LATE IM SORRY. But everything's fine because finals are finally over, yay!

Here are more Erin fun facts:

-Erin's father was an alcoholic, this made her decide to never touch any form of alcohol.

-Erin is actually very good with children (even though she doesn't like them very much). This is because of Conner who played both parental roles in her childhood. But she also tends to do the opposite of what her parents did.

-Erin actually has the least amount of physical strength among the Konoha twelve(thirteen now?).

-Erin's mother was a weird mix between a psychopath and a sociopath.

-Erin was put into public school at the age of four(kindergarten).

-Erin is from Saskatchewan Canada.

-Nobody could ever really catch Erin telling a lie if they aren't formally trained.

-Erin managed to learn the entire Japanese language and the academy's entire curriculum all in six months.

-Erin's IQ is 143(almost a genius).

-Erin's chakra travels through her blood vessels.

So what do you guys think of these fun facts?

Alright guys, I've got over 100 followers now. I think that the next chapter should be special. What do you want, a chapter with some of Erin's childhood(I'm thinking school life and stuff). Or a chapter with another character's POV? If you want someone else's POV who do you want?

If nobody chooses I'll just pick the childhood thing. Also, from now on instead of views I'm going to use follows to decide when I put a special chapter. I'm thinking every 50 follows.


	34. Chapter 33

A/N: sold to the nice person to review first! Congrats jeskagomes! YOU have chosen this special chapter!

Shikaku's POV it is! Man, I never even thought of him but it's actually a great idea! I like him as a character!

Chapter 33:

Shikaku raised a brow at the foreign stranger. People don't just appear out of nowhere, none of it made any sense.

The girl abruptly dropped her pale blue gaze down to to bed covers the moment she made eye contact. 'Her confidence level is obviously very high at the moment.' He thought sarcastically. But it makes sense, nobody would be confident in the situation that she was currently in. Unless of course she was actually a spy.

The Hokage slowly moved forward and gently asked the girl where she was from. No reaction.

"well I suppose that if you can't speak with us, keeping you would be useless and we may as well just kill you." Shikaku watched for any sign, a twitch, a slight change in expression, et cetera. She only showed frustration. She mumbled something in that strange language that Shikaku had never heard before even with all of his years of experience.

The Hokage let out a sigh, "we could see if Inoichi-san can make a connection but judging by how she appears to be missing chakra…"

"Her chakra coils absorbed healing chakra just fine so it most likely won't hurt to try." Haru briefly explained.

Inoichi glanced at Shikaku and he gave his teammate a small nod. "It's worth a try." Inoichi stated with a shrug and stepped forward. The reaction was immediate. The girl immediately recoiled and snapped another sentence at Inoichi. It sounded like a challenge.

That's odd… Shikaku thought about how most twelve year olds would be. They would of course be nervous, but this one has an unnatural hostility… Just by judging the look in her eyes, if Inoichi got too close she would make an effort to cause him pain.

The blonde stopped in front of her bent down slightly so he was closer to her height, and calmly gestured to himself. "Yamanaka Inoichi." The girl's eyes immediately widened and she stared at him in shock. Shikaku could tell that she recognized the name. She briefly glanced at him but quickly had her eyes back on Inoichi.

"Latté Erin." So we have a name. But Shikaku had never heard anything like it before. It doesn't seem to necessarily mean anything, it's just "Erin". The same went for her last name. He hadn't even heard the strange "el" sound before…

"Erin-san, you may not understand me but I'm going to attempt to enter your mindscape to talk to you." Then, he doesn't give the girl a chance to react before placing his hand firmly on her head. Her eyes immediately went blank. Shikaku let out a small sigh, it seems as if the jutsu was a success.

"Inoichi-san, what happened?" Shikaku blinked in surprise at Hiruzen's voice. He turned his attention back to Inoichi and Erin. 'They're already done…?' That conversation must have been incredibly fast.

"She kicked me out." Impossible. The Yamanaka clan's jutsu is the best among the five great nations. Only those who have been specifically trained against it can fight back.

"...Forcefully?" Shikaku asked, trying to keep the shock out of his voice.

"In a way, I suppose but I think that she didn't know what she was doing."

"How so?" He continued to ask.

"I could tell that she was in pain throughout the entire conversation that we had. It didn't seem like she was intending to end our conversation when she did." Shikaku turned his attention back to the girl. She must have incredible chakra control to beat the Yamanaka's jutsu.

Shikaku glances to his right as Minami voices his own thoughts.

"I didn't even manage to make it to her mindscape. I'm assuming that's because she doesn't have any chakra." That's the only thing that that they can infer for now. It frustrates Shikaku, the fact that he can't figure this out.

"If it was causing her pain then it most likely means that she's hypersensitive to chakra." Haru added into the conversation. By now Shikaku wasn't paying full attention anymore, he was trying to figure everything out.

"Did you learn anything about this case?" Asked the Hokage from where he was standing.

"She said that she was from somewhere called "Canada". Have you ever heard of it, Shikaku?" Shikaku shook his head, he had no idea what that place was. "She said that she was fourteen and I think that she has some sort of combat training but she didn't get to finish when she was explaining it…" Shikaku couldn't help but feel embarrassed at the fact that he thought that Erin was twelve. But she does look that age. And if she's had combat training…

Shikaku glances at her. Her odd black-rimmed eyes focussed on her bedsheets. She was done trying to listen. She's clearly lost in her own thoughts.

"Minami-san, I want you to remove her bindings. I don't think that she's too much of a threat." Hiruzen orders.

"Are you sure, Hokage-sama…?" Asks Haru skeptically. Shikaku couldn't help but agree. If Inoichi wasn't in the girl's mindscape, Erin could have easily been lying. Haru would definitely want to be careful, an enemy shinobi in a hospital doesn't sound like a very good situation...

The Hokage gives Haru a smile. "Don't worry, I'll place some ANBU guards." Haru and Minami give small nods before Minami promptly steps forward to take off Erin's restraints. The redhead blinks at her briefly before losing interest. "Goodbye Erin-chan."

As Shikaku leaves he only sees a skeptical look from the girl.

~0~

"Hokage-sama! Erin-san and I were training and I left for a few minutes and now she's missing!" Rock Lee bursts into the room right in the middle of one of Shikaku's and Hiruzen's regular meetings. "I-I didn't mean to! She asked me to get some targets but when I came back there wasn't a sign of her! I-"

"Calm down Lee-san! Tell me what happened more slowly." The Hokage interrupts the boy. Shikaku turned.

"I-I, we were starting to train and she didn't want to hit me so she asked for targets! I agreed and went and got them. But when I came back she was gone!" Nerves struck Shikaku. Different scenarios ran through his head. She could have run away, she could actually be a spy, she could have gotten lost(though that was unlikely), kidnapping, et cetera. One thing that he knew was that this was bad.

"ANBU!" Called Hiruzen sharply, a bear ANBU immediately appeared in a kneeling position.

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Form a search party! We're looking for Latté Erin!" The masked man gives a small nod before disappearing. Shikaku knew that they wouldn't have to tell them what she looked like. She was a popular topic among upper level shinobi.

"Lee-san, could you show us where you last saw Erin-san?" That was a good idea, they need to see the scene for themselves to come to a logical conclusion.

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" They quickly follow the boy out of the office. Despite his age, Hiruzen runs alongside the genin. Shikaku runs slightly behind. As they pass through the village civilians and shinobi alike pause when they spot the Hokage jumping from roof to roof.

The entire trip, Shikaku is lost in thought. If Erin was a spy it would have been smarter to make herself scarce later. As far as they know she hasn't gained very much information.

It would make far more sense if she was kidnapped. From what has been observed she has some rare and abilities which were believed to be impossible until she appeared. Surviving without chakra, being immune to the Yamanaka's jutsu. Not to mention learning an entirely new language at an alarming rate.

Somebody would definitely want to take possession of her for her rare abilities. The only question is who.

They stop in a small training ground. A couple of targets lay untouched in the small clearings grass. Lee must have dropped them when he saw that Erin was missing.

"This is it?" Shikaku asked calmly as he surveyed the area.

"Yes!" He quietly looked around.

"Hmm, we don't have very much to work with…" stated Shikaku. There were almost no signs that anybody was here in the first place. They would most likely end up having to rely on Ninja hounds for finding Erin.

"Shikaku, look." The Hokage stood by a tree. It would look completely normal if there wasn't a couple of dark red hairs caught in the bark. Rock Lee beat Shikaku to the tree and looked at it closely.

"Yes! It is obvious that these hairs are Erin's!" The boy states.

"The only question is, is how that many hairs got there." Shikaku stood beside the Hokage.

"Hokage-sama!" Shikaku turned to see the ANBU from before. But this time he has several others.

Shibi Aburame, he's the father of his son's classmate, Shino as he remembers. Along with him is Stume Inuzuka and a Hyuga that he couldn't quite put a name on.

"We heard that we have a missing girl." Says Tsume, for once she seems to have a serious tone to her voice.

"Yes, so far we've only found a few strands of hair…" Answers the Hokage calmly.

"That should be enough for us, right Kuromaru?" The enormous canine nods his head before immediately setting to work.

"Byakugan!" The Hyuga begins to do their job as well. While Shibi sends insects in all directions.

Once they're all working the Hokage lets out an enormous sigh. "It's good to know that we have some professionals on he case…"

"Hn."

"Lee-san, you can go home now. We'll let you know when we find her." Shikaku blinks when Hiruzen says "when". There's no that he can guarantee that they'll find Erin. He supposed that the Hokage just wanted to make the genin feel better…

"But-"

"No "buts" the stress must have made you tired. Go home and rest." Hiruzen promptly interrupts him.

"Yes Hokage-sama…" with that the boy's gone.

Shikaku chuckles, "you do realize who Lee's sensei is. There is absolutely no way that he could be exhausted." Hiruzen gives a small laugh back at his statement.

"True, but he won't be useful here." He says with seriousness as he turns back around.

"Hokage-sama." The Hyuga gestures to come beside him. Once they're there he gestures to the ground. "There's some white powder here. My guess is that is could have been used to knock the girl out. But we need Stune to come here to confirm. Also, this grass is completely trampled." Signs of struggle. At least they can infer that Erin was never intending to leave.

Shikaku voiced his thoughts, "she was kidnapped…" The Hokage stiffens, "but by who…?"

"Orochimaru." Hiruzen growled with venom, Shikaku stared in surprise. Orochimaru has always been a "taboo" subject with the old man. "I can just tell. I think that this has to do with him."

Shikaku thought through his answer carefully. If it was Orochimaru, that meant that he was getting bolder. "Well, we should set up a watch. And order for all shinobi, including genin, to keep a close eye out for anything suspicious."

~0~

She was missing for about a week. When she came back she that Hiruzen's statement was true. Orochimaru's men took her and a boy from Kirigakure. Erin claimed that his name was Suigetsu of the Hozuki clan. The Hozuki clan is famous for their special water based techniques and kekkei genkei. So they knew that Orochimaru was after Erin's rare abilities.

The most shocking thing was that the girl claimed that she wanted to join the academy all of a sudden.

"So, are you going to let her?" Shikaku asked calmly as he leaned against a wall.

The Hokage let out a tired sigh and looked up at him from his desk. "I think that I probably will. She's said that she's unlocked her chakra and I can see potential in her… What do you think?"

Shikaku took a moment to think, this is a risky move. But it could turn out very beneficial for Konoha. They recently received a message from Sunagakure saying that a man who was struck once by the girl's chakra recently died. But the problem is that Erin told them that the man attempted to destroy his body with explosives. The truth is that the girl could be deadly. What they need is for her to be on their side. But she could very easily be lying.

"I think that you should enroll her in the academy. But ask her senseis to keep an eye on her." Hiruzen smiled faintly before pausing to write something on a sheet of paper. He held it up to show an entrance form with the girl's portrait.

"Done."

~0~

"Oi, Tou-san. Today we got a new classmate." Shikaku glanced up from his newspaper. He raised a brow as if he had no idea who Shikamaru was talking about.

"Who is it?"

"Her name's Erin."

"What's she like?" Shikaku asked, actually interested.

"She's really weird. She doesn't act very much like the other girl's. So far she's the only girl other than the Hyuga named Hinata who hasn't wanted anything to do with Sasuke." Shikaku wasn't surprised, Erin's personality was unique.

"So, did anything interesting happen?" Shikamaru shrugged and looked back down at whatever he was doing.

"Not really, we invited her to eat lunch with us. Other than us talking to her she didn't talk very much. But, I think that she's friends with Naruto." Huh, that was interesting. Shikamaru has brought up Uzumaki Naruto, asking him why all of the adults treated him badly. Of course, the reason was because he had the Kyuubi sealed inside of him. But he didn't tell him and let Shikamaru create his own opinion of the boy.

It's interesting that Latté Erin of all people would befriend the boy. From what Shikaku had heard, the girl was introverted, antisocial, had a general dislike for people, et cetera. It made him proud that Shikamaru approached without any hostility.

"She isn't very popular. The other girls in my class tried several times to get a reaction but it didn't work out very well for them." Well, that's the way that children are. They can be cruel towards people who are different. He didn't like to think it, but Shikaku knew that a lot of adults were like that too.

"Shikamaru, do you remember what I asked you about Naruto?"

"...Yes."

"Well, what do you think about Erin?"

Shikamaru takes a long time to answer. Of course, he's only known this person for one day.

"...I think that she's odd and a little bit troublesome. But I don't think that it's her fault that she's that way and it's just part of her personality. She isn't very open but I feel like there's a reason why she's that way. She also isn't mean unless somebody's mean to her. I think that we could be friends."

Shikaku only gave a small nod but deep down he felt proud of his sons maturity.

~0~

"I think that this would be a good tracking team." Shikaku placed the portraits of Aburame Shino, Hyuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba in a row in front of Hiruzen.

"Hmm, that is a good idea. This is team eight." He slid them to the side of who they were planning on making their sensei. "Now, who are we going to make the team of four…?" Muttered the old man thoughtfully they had both subconsciously left Erin out of the teams.

"Hmm, we've been told that Erin-san has an affinity for ninjutsu and sealing… She's also a sensory type and doesn't have too bad of a mind…" Shikaku thought out loud. "We could add her to the Ino-Shika-Cho formation to add some more muscle…"

"Or, we could put her on team eight and have her improve on her sensory abilities…"

"Or a reconnaissance team.-"

"Actually, I was thinking maybe…" Hiruzen slid the picture beside team seven.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, Hatake Kakashi, and… Latté Erin…?" That's an interesting mix. "Three of the top students with one of the worst students?" That doesn't seem very well balanced.

"But Shikaku, do you know what I want this team to become?"

Shikaku looked down carefully. Sharingan, Kyuubi, impressive chakra control which is perfect for a medic-nin, adding ninjutsu and sealing, led by the Copy Ninja Kakashi.

"A combat unit…" Shikaku breathed, this team will become a group of frontline fighters with terrifying power.

"Exactly."

Shikaku looked down at the Hokage and finally nodded.

~0~

A/N: Ok, I'm sorry if I didn't portray Shikaku that well. He's just a really interesting character and stuff.

Yo, more fun facts about Erin:

-Erin's chakra allows her to force her body to move even if it's completely limp(even though that isn't very healthy).

-The Uchiha training grounds is actually Erin's favourite place to go to since it's so quiet.

-Erin hates having to hurt people. This is clearly bad for shinobi.

-Erin rarely made any friends in elementary school and she wasn't even interested in making them.

-Because of the large differences in cultures, the majority of men are intimidated by Erin.

-If Erin was raised in a better home she would have been an INFP(Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceptive). Rather than INTJ(Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging). I strongly believe that different experiences and stuff shape and affect people.

-*Spoiler* Erin will end up having three children. They will exist in the Boruto generation.

-*Spoiler* Erin has about ⅔ of the average chakra of a tailed beast and can rival Kisame's chakra levels.

And that's it! I hope that you enjoyed the interesting facts.

Somebody please give me constructive criticism! Please! I probably need it, if anyone sees something that I can improve on as a writer, say something!

Also, questions about the story are fun to answer.


	35. Chapter 34

Chapter 34:

"So?" I ask with a small smirk as Minami walks back in with the results.

She lets out a loud sigh and begrudgingly hands me the papers. I look down and read carefully and my smirk widens.

"Alright , back to training."

"You'd better be careful with your arm! I don't want to see you back here!" Minami says, "remember, if it were up to me you'd still have to wear your sling."

"Yeah, got it." But I'm only giving her half of my attention. Now that I can go back to training that means I can finally start at the foundation. And that means that badassery is almost within my reach. "Can I go now?"

"Well, I suppose that there isn't anything that I can do to keep you here." I hop off of the examination table and give Minami a small nod.

"Well, I'll see you around."

"I mean it, Erin! Do. Not. Mess. Up. Your. Arm. Again."

I can't help but laugh a little bit as I leave.

~0~

Well, now what?

Now that I can use both arms I have no idea what to do. I guess that I could start training but for what?

I quietly walk along the small river that runs through the village.

Hmm, if I do any taijutsu training I'll have to be careful. There isn't very much that I can do for ninjutsu other than brush up on what I know… Except for, my least favourite one. Hidden in the Mist Jutsu.

Ugh, but I don't want to…

No. I have to force myself to learn that jutsu. It will make me a better shinobi.

But I don't want to…

I let out a small groan and lift my hands above my head. I could work on sealing. But I feel like for the next level I would actually need a mentor. I know how to make sealing scrolls, explosives that vary in size…

What would be next would be large scale sealing.

You know what? I'm just going to work on a little bit of taijutsu, then I'll move onto ninjutsu no matter how much I hate it.

Now to find somewhere to train…

I would go to the Uchiha grounds so that I could be completely alone, but it's too far away and I feel as if it's disrespectful in a way…

I'll just go to the training ground that my team usually meets in.

~0~

I calmly breath in as I get into a ready stance. It's time to work on my forms, I hope that I can remember them after so long.

Alright, white belt.

Underblock, punch-uh-underblock, punch.

Alright now it's just basically repeating that for a while.

I jump when I hear a sharp cawing above me. I drop my hands and look up. A hawk, that's rare.

I ignore it and start to continue but freeze when it swoops down and lands in front of my.

What the-

It screeches and suddenly launches straight in my face. I can't help but yell in surprise and throw my hands forward in a desperate attempt to block. I suddenly feel even more confusion as I feel a weight landing on my right arm.

I slowly open my eyes to see the bird perched on my arm with a complete calm.

I stare in confusion, why is there a hawk sitting on my arm-?

Oh.

I spot a strap on it's leg and recognize it. This is a messenger bird. Actually common in the world of shinobi. But I'm just wondering, why do I have one?

I carefully reach forward and remove the note. It takes me a few seconds since I've never gotten one before and I can't help but flinch when the hawk gives an irritated clicking sound.

The second that I remove the note the bird launches off of my arm. I wasn't ready and my head ended up getting hit twice by its wings.

I rub my head subconsciously as I open my note with my free hand. Oh, it's so great to finally have two hands.

MEET IN UCHIHA COMPOUND

12:00AM

-BOAR

Oh, it's just a reminder. I silently fold the letter and shove it into my pocket. Really, that late at night? But I don't want to get up that early.

Or I just don't go to sleep tonight. That sounds easier, if I want my eight hours of sleep I have to go to bed in about an hour or two. Good luck with that. I may as well just stay awake.

Man, I'm going to regret this decision tomorrow. Good thing that it's the weekend.

Time to get back to work. But wait, shouldn't I avoid exhausting myself before my first day of training?

I could just go home and work on sealing…

I turn around but the second I step forward I hear somebody speak from behind me.

"Quitting so soon, Erin-san?" A voice cheerfully greets me, but I can't help but freeze. "I thought that you only just started training!" I take a few seconds to recognize the voice.

"Gai-sensei." I greet and turn around. The man smiles and give me a thumbs up.

"It's good to know that your arm is completely healed and functional!" I smile awkwardly and give a small nod. But only anxiety floods through me. How long has he been here? Why didn't I sense him? Did he see me receiving the note?

"I uhh…" What is my excuse for leaving after ten minutes of training? "I just realized that I don't want to get too far ahead of my team!" Oh great. The first thing that comes into mind is not the right thing to say. Man, my subconscious mind must be so vain.

Gai raises a hand to his chin and looks down at me skeptically. "That can't be true, from what I've heard from Lee you aren't one to hold back." Shit! What do I say now? Maybe I can just say that I'm not feeling well? And if he doesn't believe me I can make myself throw up. Then he'll definitely believe me! "Oh I know…"

The seal on my tongue flares dangerously.

Nerves flare up and I stiffen. That's it, if he asks for my note I'll take it out and eat it. I absolutely cannot let him know about ROOT. And I don't know what would happen to me if he found out.-

"You have a secret admirer!" What?

"What…?" I feel my face become bright red with embarrassment.

"You just received a love letter! Didn't you Erin-san!?" I take it back. It would have been better if he guessed ROOT. "Tell me! Who is this fine young man?"

"NO!"

Gai stares at me with confusion. "I have never gotten a single love letter! I was leaving because… Because…" What will he believe what will he believe.

Suddenly, I've got it. "Kakashi-sensei isn't here to teach me. And none of my teammates are here to spar with so I'm bored." I say with a small shrug. "I didn't see very much of a point of staying here so I just kind of…" I make an effort to keep my expression bored even though I feel like smirking because of my somewhat decent lie. I watch as Gai's face changes from confusion to enthusiasm.

"If you don't have anybody to teach you…" He says, "then I, Might Gai, must take on that responsibility!" Now I smirk, I completely redirected his attention from my note. I wonder what Boar or Danzo would think. Would they be impressed?

Suddenly the man in green pumps a fist into the air, regaining my attention. "I know! This can be a competition between myself and my eternal rival! Who is the better sensei!?"

Oh no, what have I gotten myself into…

"Tell me, Erin-san! What has Kakashi taught you so far?" My mind scrambles as I try to come up with random ideas.

"Uh-water walking, and four ninjutsu. Each from a different element." That's all that I can think of-oh wait! "Also, all of my team's formations and maneuvers."

Gai simply stares at me. Why is he looking at me like that? It's like I'm some sort of anomaly.

"Are you sure that he hasn't taught you anything else?"

What? I'm pretty sure that Kakashi hasn't taught me anything else. What is this? Some sort of test?

"I-I don't understand your question, Gai-sensei…" The man lets out a large sigh and brushes his straight bangs out of his eyes.

"You really are just like him…"

"What?"

"Kakashi when he was younger." I give him a blank stare since I still don't understand how the conversation became this way. Gai chuckles and looks at the sky as if reminiscing. "Always thinking of the technical things and never the emotional aspects and morals."

I blink, oh, now I understand more clearly. In the past Kakashi must have been colder, but if he was why did he change? And I still don't understand what Gai was asking me in the first place.

"Erin…" He snaps me out of my thoughts and I look up at him. His usual encouraging grin has returned. "Has Kakashi not taught you the youthful values of guts, teamwork, and hard work!?" Erm… What?

That sounds kind of dumb.

I mean, who really cares about those kinds of things. I can get teamwork but hard work and guts? Of course they're important but people can't simply rely on that…

"I suppose that he did teach me those things…" I mutter while I look down, I don't really want him to know that I disagree with his values.

"You don't think that those things are important." I almost jump at Gai's voice again. How does he manage to read me so easily?

Or maybe I'm really easy to read but people pretend not to notice. Gai's just special and always says his thoughts.

"Erin!" This time I actually do jump because the man straight up kneels down and places a hand on my shoulder. It hurts a little bit…

"Kakashi's first test was based on teamwork! It must have taken you hard work and dedication to learn all of those jutsu's that quickly! And, it must have taken a lot of guts to fight such a powerful criminal for your team!" I don't really believe it so I look up into his eyes.

But the look of pure determination and excitement tells me that he means it.

"Now, I know the perfect form of taijutsu for you!" Oh, we're moving on from the subject. Gai stands, "the art of the cobra!"

"The art of the cobra…?" I immediately question. What does he mean by that?

Gai turns to the right, facing away from the three logs of wood which I was practicing right beside. He takes out a scroll and I stare in shock as he flows chakra into it. With a puff of smoke a dummy appears. But it isn't a human dummy. It's one of those hardcore wooden things that I've only seen masters of martial arts practice on in movies.

"You want to be really low on the ground." Gai gets into a stance that I've never seen before, but like he said he is very low to the ground. "Snakes can get past any defence. And the Cobra specifically can use dangerous hits."

I watch as he smoothly moves his arms in an odd way. Oh, I get it. He's trying to be really hard to read. "The art of the Cobra focuses not on being stronger than your enemy, but on being faster, and more dangerous. When somebody uses brute strength, they may do more damage when they hit but they're easier to read and redirect their attacks." I agree. That's what I've been focussing on for my taijutsu so far. Redirecting and using their momentum against them.

"You have to be fast and hit vital points, since you are smaller." All of a sudden Gai steps forward, keeping low, rears up and strikes the dummy several times. But he goes so fast that the only way that I know that he actually hit is was the loud sounds that came from the wood.

Whoa…

"You try now, Erin!" Gai steps back and gives me a thumbs up. Uh…

I slowly step forward, ugh this thing is already taller than me. "So like this?" I sink down low with my legs wide spread for balance.

"Lower!" I sink down a little bit.

"Lower!" I sink down more, this is starting to hurt…

"Lower!" I almost complain but I just grit my teeth.

"Perfect!" My legs are starting to shake because of this stance. My head is about three and a half feet above the ground.

How am I supposed to fight like this?

"With hard work and dedication, you can master this form of combat!" Oh great. Ten out of ten advice. Sensei of the year.

"For now, I just want you to practice stepping forward in that stance and striking! I will meet you here again tomorrow!" The man turns around and I immediately stand back up.

"But Gai-sensei! What about your wooden dummy?"

He pauses and looks back over his shoulder. "Erin, how old are you?"

"Fourt-I mean fifteen."

"Yes, you were fourteen when we first met." He says more quietly I raise a brow. "Then this will be your late birthday present from me! Don't worry, I have three more!"

I actually gape at him. Why would he do that? He didn't have to. There isn't any reason why he should… In fact there isn't any reason why he should be training me in the first place! Of course I've gotten birthday presents from Conner and a few from Paula but nothing compared to this.

"Just promise me one thing, my youthful friend." I look back up to see that he has turned around again

He gives me a huge winning smile. "Become one of the world's strongest kunoichi and someday spar with Lee!"

This time I can't help but give a small grin back. "Thank you Gai-sensei."

He nods and is off with a puff of smoke.

I turn back to the dummy and sink back into my stance.

Alright, no more emotional bullshit. It's time for training.

~0~

I trained for several hours, went home (with my brand new training dummy sealed), made myself dinner, and lazed around as I waited for twelve.

I glance at the clock, 11:30. It's time to go.

I slide smoothly off of my bed and move to the front door. Then I slip on my trench coat and boots. I almost forget my gloves.

Should I leave through my front door? Or just through my window? Well, if anyone just to happened to be wondering where I was at night they could ask my neighbors and they might hear me come out the front door…

Window it is.

I launch forward into the chilly night air, my legs are sore from training today. Whatever.

As I continue I feel my leg muscles loosen and I can focus on my surroundings. It's so quiet in Konoha at night. It seems so peaceful. You'd never know that this place is famous for training powerful shinobi.

It takes me several minutes to reach the entrance of the Uchiha compound. Once I'm there I realize just the smallest problem. Boar didn't specify exactly where in the Uchiha compound to meet.

And now that I'm here…at nighttime…

I'm getting some serious creepy vibes from this place. Of course I like it here during the day but now the only thing that I can think about is that one night, probably just like this one, quiet and peaceful, over one hundred people were literally murdered.

I REALLY don't want to go in there…

Suddenly a shiver moves down my spine and I glance behind me. Nothing but darkness, but I can't shake off this feeling…

"Boar-san?" I ask quietly but just loud enough to probably be heard.

No answer, just silence. Silence, that's bad in a place like this. There should at least be the sounds of insects.

All of my muscles tense against my will, I know that I'm being watched. I draw a small amount of chakra just for me to defend myself if I get a jump scare. But the chakra makes me feel worse.

Whatever is out there is making my chakra go crazy. It burns even more than usual and is being hard to manipulate.

"Who's there?" This time I add some venom to my voice, "I know that you're out there." Huh, I feel like I've felt this presence before…

I jump when I suddenly hear a dark chuckle. It makes my hair stand on end, that voice…

"It's interesting, you just so happen to be one of the few people who can sense me." Oh my god, I'm feeling awful right now. I wasn't expecting to get an answer, I would have felt better if I was just imagining things.

I tree branch catches my attention as something pure black rises out of the bark. I stare at a glowing pair of pupil less yellow eyes and a large, toothy grin. It's even more freaky because it looks as if the eyes and sharp teeth glow in the dark.

The thing chuckles even more. "It's actually amusing how easy it is to get a person terrified as well." I would like to argue but right now I can't move, this is freaking me out too much.

"W-Who are you?" I mentally curse my stutter. Stoic and sarcastic attitude, why have you failed me now…?

"Oh, me?" I can't help it, I hate his voice. "I'm the one who has orchestrated this shinobi world from within the shadows." He pauses and his yellow eyes narrow at me dangerously.

"And I will continue to do that in the future. No power in this world or out of this world can change it. Don't forget."

"Wait, wha-"

He's gone, without a trace. My chakra calms down and that awful feeling disappears.

"Erin." I jump and curse very loudly in English before spinning around.

"Oh my god, Boar!" I look up at the masked man, "how about NOT coming up behind somebody without warning?"

He shrugs, "it's not my fault that you are incapable of sensing me." I grit my teeth, great freaking timing Boar. He's probably the reason why whoever or whatever that thing was disappeared.

"Now, follow me." I let out a sigh before launching after him into the trees.

~0~

The journey is mostly silent, this time I tried harder to keep up with boar. I'm not in the mood for criticism.

I'm busy trying to figure out exactly what that thing was. Also what it wanted. I think that whatever he said was a warning. But why would he feel the need to give me a warning?

'"I'm the one who has orchestrated this shinobi world from within the shadows. And I will continue to do that in the future. No power in this world or out of this world can change it. Don't forget."'

I mentally go over his words several times…

He is the one who has orchestrated the shinobi world… From within the shadows…

How old is he? He didn't seem human so there's no way to know. Maybe he figured out how to stay alive like Orochimaru.

He will continue to manipulate the world as he sees fit and no power, or possibly person in this world or out of this world can change it.

That's the threat. Whoever this is, is feeling threatened by my presence and has felt the need to plant a seed of fear. Well, I won't let who that is control me no matter what. I'm getting the sense that he's one of the main villains.

But, why was his presence effecting my chakra so much? It was almost impossible for me to manipulate my chakra with him around. It also did more damage than usual. Even now some parts of my chest still sting.

"We're here." I blink in surprise, that quickly? I look down but see nothing. But then I notice the awful headache that I hadn't noticed until now.

It only takes me a few seconds to release the genjutsu and then I can see a door.

I follow Boar closely to make sure that I don't lose him. Just like last time, we pass by a few people but we don't speak to them at all. But a few give me a curious stare.

Suddenly Boar turns into a room and I almost keep on walking. As I walk in I notice how dimly lit it is. And a thick mat, probably for sparring, and several dummies.

"With your training, you will follow a pattern. You will have a different mentor and different skill to work on each night. Tonight, you start with taijutsu." Boar gestures forward to a woman who I didn't notice before. "This is your teacher for taijutsu." I almost groan, I've already worked in taijutsu today.

"I'll be seeing you." He gives me a small nod before taking his leave.

I'm left standing awkwardly in a dead silent room. I notice that the woman isn't wearing a mask. She has simple black hair and black eyes. If they weren't all dead I might have mistaken her as an Uchiha.

"...For my training you will learn every form of taijutsu that I Know. including Uchiha, Hyuga, and other clans types of taijutsu. You will also learn how to fight blind, deaf, drunk, and without your sensory abilities."

…

Guys, better watch out we have a badass over here.

"Now, follow me." I quietly do so, she leads me to a closet. She opens it, "this is the outfit that you will wear for my training." I give a small nod and take one off of the rack that seems my size.

"Change in there." She gestures to another door and I quickly move and slide it open.

I close the door behind me, as I change I contemplate what she told me about my training. That is an awful lot to learn. I'm not so sure if I can actually do it.

I finish and luckily there's a mirror for me to look at. The entire outfit is black. A tight black tank top with baggy pants that are similar to what I was already wearing. Hmm, it's showing off my body more.

I lift my arm and look, yeah, you could say that I have a lot of muscle.

I finally exit the room and I notice since I wasn't paying attention that the woman's wearing basically the same outfit as me.

She gestures to the large mat, "we're going to spar to see where you're at for taijutsu." I immediately stiffen, I honestly like sparring that much. I'm worried about hurting somebody else and somebody hurting me. While I was in the academy I could usually use simple takedowns to win without hurting anyone. Here I doubt that it will work like that.

Without a word I move to the opposite side of the mat.

She steps onto the mat and lifts her right hand into the unison sign. I copy.

With the look in her eyes, she's going to take me seriously. I already know that I'm going to lose…

Suddenly I'm on the ground with a foot firmly planted on my back. W-What?

"You have to pay full attention to your opponents. In real life, right now you would either be dead or you would have been captured by the enemy which is worse than being dead." Oh shit.

She moves off and I slowly push myself back to my feet.

"I'm going to attack again." Nerves flare up but this time I move into a defencive stance. She looks my right in the eyes and launches forward, not breaking eye-contact.

I barely manage to dodge a blow which basically puts me on the corner of the mat. Before I can even move I have to duck again.

"Be more aggressive." Her voice deadpans but I barely manage to hear her.

She attempts to strike me again but this time I redirect the blow and aim a sharp uppercut. But I don't know what comes over me but last minute I move my elbow slightly so it doesn't hit her.

She brings back the arm that I just redirected. Pain shoots through my stomach and I'm sent backwards a couple of metres.

I groan and curl into myself as I clutch my stomach. I glance up and see her dark eyes glaring down at me. "Yes, now I know what the problem is. Wait here." Her cold, emotionless voice states calmly before I hear her footsteps disappear.

While I wait I close my eyes briefly. 'Exactly what the hell have I gotten myself into?' I question myself mentally. I can't shake this awful feeling of dread.

I open my eyes and slowly sit up despite my pain. Whatever, it's too late to back out now. And it will all eventually be worth it.

I've stood up by the time she comes back. But this time she has a boy following her. It takes me a second but I recognize him, he's the pale boy from the first time I came here.

"You, stand here." It takes me a second to realize that she isn't talking to me. The boy obediently moves to the middle of the sparring mat. "You, move in front of him." Now I know that she's talking to me. I follow her directions and look at the boy in the eyes. What does she want me to do?

"Hit him." It takes me a second to understand.

"W-What?" I ask, I hope that I misheard her. I'm practically begging that I misheard her.

"Hit. Him." I look back up at the boy, I can't read any emotion for him. But he looks around a couple of years younger than me even if he's taller than me. "Don't hold back."

I'm shocked…

"But-"

"Do it." I hesitate.

"I am your superior and you must follow my orders. My orders are to hit him as hard as you can."

"I-"

"NOW!" She finally snaps at me.

This is against every moral that I have. He doesn't get to fight back. Look at him, he hasn't said one word against this. I don't even like hitting people in general.

I freeze when she shouts right in my ear again.

I have no choice but to comply…

I lift my fist, 'I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry.'

I strike him in the stomach before letting my arm hang limp.

"Did I not tell you not to hold back? Hit him in the face." I feel my face contort slightly in disgust.

I lift my fist again aim, and hit him harder in the face. I drop my arm again.

"Have I told you to stop?"

This time I feel his nose break.

The next one will definitely leave a black eye.

I question if I broke his jaw.

I hit his other eye.

I notice blood on my fist.

I lose track of how many times I hit him. But by then I had numbed myself to the awful feelings.

It's only when he collapses that I stop. I don't hear the woman say something. But I know that she did.

When she's gone I blankly stare at the blood soaked mat.

And a single tear falls into the mess.

~0~

A/N: and the dehumanization begins! Erin had no idea what she was getting herself into! Also sorry if the ending was a little sloppy, I was just kind of desperate to get this chapter out since I'm so late.

I'd bet that the majority of people here can guess who the black figure was! Also, for the art of the cobra just assuring you that I didn't decide to change Erin's summoning. But she will eventually learn "The Art of The Peacock".

Ok guys, who wants to make a stats thing for Erin? I do! Here it is:

Ninjutsu: 3 (she has an affinity for it doesn't know anything super impressive yet.)

Taijutsu: 2.5 (basically the same thing as ninjutsu)

Genjutsu: 1 (you can understand why)

Intelligence: 4

Strength: 1.5 (the majority of people can overpower her)

Speed: 2 (average)

Stamina: 4 (this isn't completely her physical skill because she can go for a long time just using her chakra)

Handseals: 2?

Total: 20

Here's the shippuden one of you want to see it:

Ninjutsu: 5

Taijutsu: 4

Genjutsu: 1.5

Intelligence: 4.5

Strength: 3

Speed: 3.5

Stamina: 4.5

Handseals: 3.5

Total: 28.5 (she gets pretty cool)


	36. Chapter 35

Chapter 35:

I slowly crack open my eyes and abruptly close them with a groan. I can hear my alarm going off but the last thing that I want to do is get up. I roll onto my side and try again. Good, there isn't any light.

Instead of sitting up and then standing I make the decision of rolling off of my bed, taking all of my blankets and sheets with me. I then reach up and feel around the top of my nightstand before slamming my finger several times on my alarm clock to make it stop.

Now I sit up and rub at my face. Once I'm done I glance up at my bed to find out what was shining in my eyes. Oh, it's the window that's right beside my bed and the stupid sunshine.

I finally get up and get changed. I have to get myself ready for training with Gai. Even though I don't want to anymore… I'd rather just stay home all day.

I step into the main area of my apartment and ignore my fridge as I pass by. I'm not hungry right now. Before I left I was offered breakfast which I took, but I didn't eat very much.

As I head for the door I pause to seal the wooden dummy.

I slip on my old ninja sandals instead of my boots. Before leaving I tie my headband loosely around my neck.

~0~

I quietly walk through the village, I have about an hour and a half before I have to meet Gai. I could go to the training grounds right now and get a head start. But the thought makes me even more tired than I already am.

Ok, I'll basically just hang around the village for a while and most likely be late to meet Gai. I'll come up with an excuse.

"Oi! Your Erin-san, right?" I jump slightly and realize that I've made my way to Ichiraku's Ramen without thinking.

"Yes." I answer simply, I'm not in the mood for long conversations right now.

The old man smiles at me and leans over the counter. "Have you seen Naruto lately? He hasn't been around for a couple of months or so-"

"He's on a mission." I interrupt monotonously.

"Oh! Thank goodness, I was worried that I lost one of my favourite regulars! Do you know when he'll be getting back?" He asks quickly.

I shrug, "well, I think that it should be anytime now. I don't know what's holding them up." I add the smallest amount of frustration into my voice. I honestly think that they should have been back a few weeks ago. I would be so happy if they came today… Then I wouldn't have to go back to the academy and work with Iruka.

"Well… Thank you anyways! I don't suppose that you're here to eat anything?"

I immediately shake my head. "No thank you. I'm not hungry."

I give the man a small wave before moving on.

As I move on I absentmindedly look at the stores that I pass by. I don't even know what I'm doing here, I'd rather just be home. In fact, I'd rather just not show up to training. Both during the day and at night.

Oh, I don't want to go back to that place…

I shake my head and continue on. That training will make me stronger. I need it.

'Do I need it or do I want it?'

Of course I want it. I don't necessarily need this training. But…if I continue I'll be trained in basically everything. And I'll move through ranks faster. It could only take me a year or two to reach jonin class, while on average it would take me about five to ten years.

Yes. This training will help me. An example is how that woman made me hit the boy. I have a habit of going easy on people, no matter who they are. Now, at least for that training, I won't have a problem with hitting people. Well…as long as they're capable of defending themselves. I never want to hit a defenceless person again.

I glance around and decide to mentally move on. I'm done with thinking about the subject.

Now I'm paying full attention to the shops that I pass by. A lot of clothing stores, there's a book store, a flower shop-

Oh shit, there's Ino! I immediately try to speed past but she's already seen me.

"Well, if it isn't Haughty Spotty! I was wondering if I would ever see you again!" Her voice seems to be just teasing but it makes me wonder what she wants. "Finally back from that big mission?"

"How did you know-"

"Oh, just an educated guess, since I haven't seen you, that idiot Naruto, billboard brow, or… Sasuke-kun." She finishes with a dreamy look in her eyes. I narrow my own eyes. I don't like her making fun of Naruto, and oddly Sakura. "Why don't you come in while we chat!?"

'I'd rather DIE.'

I stiffly shrug, "sure."

I walk in and I'm immediately overwhelmed with scents. So many flowers in one place… It's overwhelming.

I step up to the till and Ino promptly leans over. "So, if you're back does that mean that the rest of your team is?" Oh THAT'S what she wants.

"Actually no. I've been in Konoha for about a month now by myself. But they should be back anytime now." I state flatly.

Ino looks genuinely disappointed what I said has left an awkward silence. "Well… Why are you back from your mission so early?"

I hesitate because I need to go over what I'm going to say. "I got hit by a giant sword."

"WHAT!? Where!? I can't even tell!" I give a small sigh and roll up my sweaters sleeve, showing off the ruined red skin. It looks as if a large animal clawed at it. Ino makes a face, "ouch, it looks almost as if the kyuubi went at it." The second that she says it she gasps and covers her mouth.

"I wasn't supposed to say that!" She practically says it to herself. "Erin, don't tell anyone that I told you!"

I raise a brow, what's wrong with mentioning the kyuubi in front of me? Wait a second… She's talking about the nine tailed fox. Oh yeah, the thing that's sealed inside of Naruto and almost destroyed the village the day that he was born. I forgot about that…

Wait I'm not supposed to know what the kyuubi is. "What are you talking about?" I ask with fake confusion, "what's the kyuubi?"

Ino bites her lip and glances around. "It's the tailed beast of Konoha. It's a giant fox and it's super freaky! I've heard that it's taller than buildings!" She pauses, "and neither you and I are supposed to know about it! Please don't say anything!" I blink at her for a second before giving her a small nod. She lets out a sigh of relief but we're left in awkward silence again.

My mind scrambles, how can I come up with something else to talk about? Ino and I were never close, in fact, I think of us as enemies.

Something nags at the back of my head and I briefly search her face. I immediately notice darker eyelashes and bright pink lips.

"Nice makeup." I feel the energy immediately change as Ino grins and flicks her bangs out of her face.

"Oh my gosh, you noticed!? Thanks! It's a bit of a hassle but it's worth it!" She pauses and narrows her eyes slightly at me. "But you need to tell me what brand you use."

"What?"

"Don't lie to me! You use mascara and it's fantastic!"

"But I don't…"

"You don't what!?"

I stare at her blankly. "I-I don't use mascara."

She points right in my face and snaps at me. "Lier! You're not telling me that those eyelashes are natural! They're so long and dark! TELL ME YOUR SECRETS!"

"But I don't use mascara…"

"PROVE IT!" Ok, now I'm starting to lose my patience.

"What do you want me to do!? Rip an eyelash out so you can freaking inspect it!?"

"MAYBE THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES!"

Both of us freeze when we hear an awkward cough behind us. "Umm… I'm glad to hear that my daughter's making new friends…"

"Tou-san!" Ino greets with a smile and I awkwardly turn around. I make eye contact with Inoichi and the man gives me a closed eye smile.

"You look well, Erin-san! Are you here to get any flowers?"

"Uh, not really…"

"Nonsense! You can have a free one on the way out!" He says cheerfully and gives his daughter a small nod. I watch as Ino briefly looks around before smiling and and grabbing a flower.

Oh wait, it's not a single flower. It's several white flowers on one stalk. Ino stops in front of me and hands it.

She smiles, "this is a gladiolus. Stands for your strength in character, take it!" But a she leans forward she speaks darkly. "We'll finish this another time." I blink in surprise. And actor of the year goes to… Ino Yamanaka…

"I'll see you around." I wave as I leave.

~0~

After that incident, I've decided that I'm just going to go to the training grounds to practice. I don't want to run into anymore people.

I kneel down to unseal my wooden dummy before stepping back into a stance. I immediately go lower into the stance that Gai taught me yesterday.

I take a deep breath, step forward, and strike.

Suddenly a memory of bone breaking beneath my fist flashes through my mind. I almost smell the blood as I abruptly step back, gripping my wrist.

I shake my head, if I'm going to let something like this hold me back I'm going to fail as a shinobi.

I attack again and ignore the urge to recoil.

Again.

Again.

Again.

The feeling slowly numbs and I pause with a sigh. I hope that tonight won't be like last night…

I continue to train until Gai finally shows up.

"Why hello Erin! I assume that you've been training nonstop since I've last seen you?" You have no idea. Suddenly Gai blinks in surprise and he glances behind me. "Oh so you haven't been training. How was your date?" I freeze and turn around. I left my gladiolus flowers on the grass.

"No, I don't think that you understand! I don't have any love interests!" I cry almost desperately.

"Don't be ashamed, Erin! Love life is an important part of youth!"

Gai, I swear to god.

~0~

Training wasn't that special, Gai showed me several moves and I practiced them. Now I don't know what to do. It's about 4:00pm and I don't want to exhaust myself anymore. But now I don't know what to do. I suppose that I could go home and make some seals, or nap… Napping would be nice.

I pause when I sense something. A familiar chakra signature but I can't put a name on it. It's with three others. The total of the group is three people in about their preteens and one adult. All male.

I feel a flare of disappointment when I realize that it isn't my team. Too bad I got my hopes up, but I should have known that the signature that I sensed was completely different from anybody in my team's.

I turn the corner into an alleyway that will lead to the road that the team's on. Come on, where have I sensed that chakra before…?

I don't recognize the others, it's just that one person…

I turn into the main road and due to my short size I only see the adult completely. He's a shinobi, that's for sure.

I walk faster and once people start to notice me they step aside. Soon I'm within the circle that other people have made around the group as they walk.

I gasp in surprise when I see shoulder length white hair. "Suigetsu?" I call cautiously and the adult promptly turns to look at me.

I freeze.

No way…

"Erin!?" Suigetsu distracts me as he takes a step forward. "Are you seriously Erin!?"

Ok, I need to calm down. Act cool. "Yes Suigetsu. That is indeed my name, wow, somebody has a name what a wild concept." The boy smirks and steps back.

"Now I know that it's you for sure. You haven't changed at all." Then he pauses, "except when you became a shinobi." I glance down at my forehead protector.

I find myself laughing uncomfortably. Literally right before I left him in Suna he asked me if I wanted to become a Kiri-nin. Wow, I'm a huge jerk.

"Haha…" I trail off awkwardly, "umm, sorry about that. But remember how I owe this village."

The boy waves it off, "mah, no problem. I-"

"So this is Erin-san?" I jump when somebody cuts in and steps into our conversation, practically dragging a boy that I don't recognize with him. "Hi," he smiles kindly at me. And I immediately notice sharpened teeth. "I'm Haku."

I raise a brow and look him over. But I'm mentally freaking out. I can't believe it. It really is Haku, and the adult is Zabuza.

Damn, Haku really does look like a girl. If I didn't already know and I wasn't a sensory type I'd think that he was one.

"Latté Erin." I say and immediately mentally curse. He already knows my name, and I'm guessing that everyone here does too.

"Quite hiding Chojuro!" The boy who Haku dragged over practically hid behind him. Suigetsu lets out a sigh and waves it off. "Whatever, that's Chojuro. And Erin, guess who our sensei is." He smirks as if I'm going to have absolutely no idea who this person is.

Oh man, I can't ignore him anymore… I look up at the towering man. We make direct eye contact and his narrow slightly in a challenge. I don't look away because I want him to know that I'm not scared of him.

"Momochi Zabuza." I say and keep my voice monotonous.

"WHAT!? How did you know!?" Suigetsu practically shouts at me. Now that simple challenging look has now become suspicious.

"Bingo books."

"How did you see the bingo books? Only chunin, jonin, and ANBU can see them. At least in our village." Zabuza finally speaks, his voice sounds deep and kind of rough.

I force a smirk onto my face, everything's fine, he can't touch me while in the middle of Konoha. He's nothing to worry about. "Who said that I was a genin?" Suigetsu looks like he's about to freak the hell out but Zabuza beats him to it.

"You're good at lying, at least for a genin." Oh.

I awkwardly scratch the back of my head, "well, I-umm-heard that you were a skilled shinobi so I wanted to test it."

"Ha! You almost fooled me there, Erin. But there's no way that you could go up ranks so quickly! I knew from the start!" I narrow my eyes at him slightly, lier.

I glance around briefly and notice a lot of people trying their best to not let us know that they're staring.

"So, what are you guys even here for?" I ask and slowly begin walking, without thinking Suigetsu follows and soon the others.

"Chunin exams." Haku answers and I blink in surprise.

"Wait, when are those?" I ask worriedly, oh no, chunin exams means drama, stress, attack on the village, and the worst of it all...Orochimaru.

"In two weeks. Is your team going to compete as well?" My mind races, I don't know if I even want anything to do with theses exams. But, there is a small chance that I could be promoted. But OROCHIMARU. But my team will need my help with dealing with him. Who knows? Maybe I can get them to avoid him altogether. No, it won't be that easy. In the anime, Orochimaru sought out team seven.

Orochimaru's a legendary sannin with years of experience while we're a group of genin fresh from the academy. Even with me to add to it we won't stand a chance. And now Orochimaru's after me…

He'll come after team seven weather or not we take part in the chunin exams so why not? I'll do my best to make it so that Sasuke doesn't get a curse mark.

I realize that the others are staring at me. "I'm sorry, could you repeat the question?" Haku laughs lightly.

"I was asking if your team is going to participate in the chunin exams."

"Oh right, I hope so. But I have a feeling that I won't know anytime soon." Everyone sends me a questioning look, well, except for that guy with the blue hair whose name I forgot. He's just looking at the ground as he walks.

"Why is that? Can't you just ask your sensei?" Asks Suigetsu skeptically.

"The rest of my team's on a mission. I came back early because of injuries." Haku grimaces slightly, Suigetsu seems surprised, Zabuza seems mildly interested.

"Did somebody else injure you?" Oh no, should I tell them or should I not? What to do…

Suigetsu wants to rebuild the Seven Ninja Swordsman. This information might help…or it might not. I don't even know where Kisame was headed. I don't even know if he's still alive in fact. Kakashi could have killed him like he was supposed to kill Zabuza.

I glance around to make sure that there isn't anyone particularly close and lean in slightly. "Yes, it was somebody else." I say quietly and the guy who I can't remember to name of looks up while the other twelve year olds lean in slightly, Zabuza doesn't really react at all. "But I can't say…" If I can't tell my fellow genin who I fought, I highly doubt that I can tell people from other villages. And if somebody just so happens to be listening...

"Goddamnit Erin! You have us all in suspense and now you can't tell us!?" I give a small shrug.

"Can you show us the scar?" Asks Haku, oh that's a good idea. I'd bet that any ninja swordsman could recognize Samehada's marks.

I give a small nod before rolling up my sleeve. There is an immediate reaction, all of them recognize the scars.

"H-How do you get away…?" The kid with the blue hair finally speaks, I open my mouth to answer but Zabuza cuts me off.

"She didn't. He was going easy on her." I narrow my eyes slightly, he is very greatly underestimating me. Of course Kisame was going easy on me but I like to think that I was stronger than he was expecting before the fight. After all, I definitely surprised myself.

"And I had my teammates to help me. Without them I would have died from blood loss."

"Blood loss? You should have died from lack of chakra." Is Zabuza trying to get into an argument with me? Because I am absolutely not in the mood.

"Actually Zabuza-sama, Erin can't die from lack of chakra. It's her kekkei genkai." KEKKEI GENKAI WHAT?

"I see. I've never heard of that kind of a kekkei genkai before." Haku cuts into the conversation. "What clan are you from?"

KEKKEI FREAKING GENKAI.

"Erin-san?"

I HAVE A KEKKEI GENKAI.

"Erin!" Suigetsu snaps me out of it.

"O-Oh sorry. What was the question?" Suigetsu lets out a loud sigh.

"What clan are you from?"

"Clan? I don't know." Suigetsu face palms, Haku gives a small sigh, Zabuza looks annoyed and slightly more suspicious, and the blue haired kid looks shocked. "I guess that I don't have a clan."

Suddenly, Zabuza speaks slightly more sharply and I almost flinch. "It's time to go to the place where we'll be staying." Oh alright, I get the message. He wants me to go away.

"I'll see you around then." I give a small wave before taking my leave. But the second that I sense them moving away, a feeling of dread fills my stomach for tonight.

~0~

"So what am I going to do tonight?" I finally ask after a long and silent journey. It's actually amazing, I was capable of training earlier today and making it here. I might be exhausted but my body doesn't have any injuries from last night. It's actually because before I left I was taken to the infirmary to get checked over and healed. I had several pulled muscles, one torn, and a lot of bruises. But they healed everything before I left.

"Sealing." Huh, what do you know it's something that I'm somewhat decent at that I'm probably going to find out that I'm actually not decent at it but I'm below average.

I let out a small sigh and follow Boar into the hideout. Just like before we go through dark stone hallways and use sharp turns and it finally leads into a room.

I briefly glance around to see probably hundreds of scrolls that are different shapes and sizes stacked along the walls. There are a few drawers and desks. I also notice a couple of giant paint brushes.

I jump when Boar speaks, "although we have many resources for sealing, we have very few sealing artists." He proceeds to answer the question that I immediately want to ask. "This is because each and every seal must be made with intent. Those who have been raised within ROOT confuse intent with emotion, creating faulty seals or becoming overwhelmed." I blink in surprise, so what he means to say is… The people really don't feel any emotion? How is that possible?

He doesn't answer my question this time. "In my training, you will practice and perfect sealing." That was very vague.

He turns away from me before pausing to lift his mask off. Oh, I just realized that I've never seen his face before. He lifts a large scroll off of a rack before turning back towards me and setting it down. As he unrolls it I study his face, he has pale brown hair with bangs that almost fall over his sharp, dark blue eyes. He looks like he might be in his early twenties.

He takes out a couple of vials that I'm guessing have ink in them and hands me a brush.

"Show me one of your seals." Wow, that's fast. I glance down at the paper feeling slightly overwhelmed.

"How big do you want me to make it." Honestly, I'm only used to cards so I have no idea what to do here.

"Just the size that you regularly use. I picked out a large scroll so that we could fit more onto paper." I give a small nod, that makes sense.

I proceed to write out a storage seal and Boar simply gives it a calculating look. "Hmm, other than the fact that I can't understand a single word from it, it looks fairly stable. And if it's a completely different language, I suppose that it would work in your favour since an enemy most likely wouldn't be able to figure out what exactly the seal is. What is it by the way?"

"A storage seal."

"Well then, for sealing the only thing that I can teach you is how to make them, larger or smaller. And how to make them without a pen and paper but with hand seals. I'm not bothering with testing you right now with explosives since I have heard that they are well known." I try to remember everything that he's telling me. "So we'd better get to work."

Oh, I get it. Basically training sessions with Boar will be just writing out seals over and over again. Boring but better than last night.

"Boar?" I ask after about ten minutes of work.

"Hmm?"

"Would my abilities count as kekkei genkai?"

He glances up, "do you mean your ability to survive without chakra, being capable of sensing genjutsu, et cetera?"

"Yes."

"Oh, then yes."

HELL YEAH!

~0~

A/N: OH IT'S FINALLY OVER THANK GOD. I'm sorry about the late update though, I've been busy.

Hey guys, I have a question for you. If u were to make a facebook page, instagram page, or facebook group would you join? And which one? The facebook page I would have help from several admins and we would post stuff for both Naruto and Bladed Wings. The same thing with Instagram. For the facebook group it would be Naruto and Bladed Wings, anyone could post anything about either or and they could even post things about other fanfics.

Please let me know what you guys think!


	37. Chapter 36

Chapter 36:

I wonder if I'll ever be able to sleep like a regular person again?

I let out a sigh of pure exhaustion as I quietly half-listen to Iruka's lesson. I'm not the only one who seems to have problems with exhaustion. Several kids in class are half asleep. Konohamaru actually is asleep.

I lean forward in the desk and rest my hand on my chin. The past few days have been...awkward. After overhearing what Iruka said, I can hear the strain in his voice, the awkward pauses, the looks that he gives me. I can sense everything. And I pretend that everything's fine. It's actually pretty easy, outwardly, but mentally it's awful.

And now to add to that I'm exhausted, almost ready to collapse. ROOT can heal all of the bruises and minor wounds that I gain during training but when it comes to my sleep deprivation they can't do shit.

I'm planning on going to bed the second that I get home today. And I'm planning on going home as soon as the school day's over.

I jump as the bell loudly rings the entire class immediately stands and picks up their books. "Have a good lunch hour!" Iruka gives a small wave to the class as I slowly drag myself to my feet.

"I'll go out and supervise." I say with a yawn and move to head out. But Iruka stops me.

"Erin, are you alright?" I stop in front of the doorway.

"What do you mean?"

Iruka looks nervous. I wonder why. "You've been acting…different lately. You seem tired." Oh, that's cute. He's concerned for me. Or maybe he's picked up on how I currently feel about him.

"I'm fine." I state flatly before taking my leave.

~0~

"Erin-sensei!" I hear I high-pitched shout and I silently turn my head to see a certain girl running in my direction. It takes me a few seconds to recognize her, she's the girl who I helped right before the weekend. "Erin-senseiErin-senseiErin-sensei!" She skids to a stop in front of me with a large grin.

"I remembered your name! And that you're a sensei!" I can't help but smile faintly, she has personality. I can say that. "I wanna help you supervise!"

She pauses and reaches into her bag, her green hair falls over her face for a second while doing so. "Also, my Tou-chan wants me to give you these!" She hands me a small box which I immediately open. My eyes widen in surprise as I see about twelve pastries inside. "He wanted to thank you for helping me out!" I look at the girl, then at the pastries, then back at the girl.

"Thank you, I love pastries." I say, she immediately grins and placed her hands behind her head.

"Your welcome! You look like a pastry person! And my Tou-chan owns a bakery so...yeah!" She pauses, "well, what are you waiting for!? Try one!" I let out a small sigh, being forced to eat in front of somebody is kind of awkward. But if it makes this kid happy…

I pick one and take a bite. And now I think that my favourite dango shop might have some competition. "This is really good." I say with a smile.

"I KNEW IT! I KNEW THAT YOU'D LOVE IT!" I try to shush her but it doesn't work out very well.

"Erin-sensei!" I turn to see Konohamaru and his friends making their way towards me.

"Hmm?"

"Some big kids stole our ball!" Moegi cries at me and I let out a small sigh.

"Lead me to them. Do you want to come," I pause as I try to remember the girl's name. "Midori?"

She seems unfazed at my pause, "sure!"

~0~

"As that everything that you need for today?" I ask as I set down a stack of textbooks. It's been about a half an hour since class ended and I've been helping with cleaning and organizing the classroom.

"Hmm…" Iruka glances around, "sure."

"I'll see you tomorrow Iruka-sensei." Then I promptly take my leave.

I'm SO ready to go home. Sleep a little bit.-

I forgot my pastries.

~0~

It was kind of awkward that I had to go back to the classroom and ask Iruka to open his locker. After lunch he let me keep them in his locker because it would be really inconvenient for me to be carrying them around me for the entire day.

But at least now that's over, I'm leaving the academy for the day, with a box of pastries in hand. And I can sleep until ROOT training.

"Erin!" I hear two voices speak at the same time and internally groan. Who is it now? I turn and my attitude immediately disappears.

"Naruto! Sakura!" I can't help but feel excited to see them. They stop in front of me and immediately look me up and down.

"You're alright! Ya know!" Naruto grins happily.

"You're finally here! What took you guys so long? Also, where are Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke?" I ask, I suddenly feel like a lot of weight is off of my chest now that I know that my team's here.

"Well Erin, they took awhile to get the bridge done since they had to fix it after you used your explosives." Sakura sounds as if she's scolding me-haha, as if.

"What did you expect me to do? Fight him with words?" I admit it. Without my explosives I'm not that much to worry about for somebody like Kisame. And I had literally just learned my four ninjutsu, I was learning exactly how strong I could get them DURING that fight. "Wait...what happened after I passed out?"

Naruto immediately looks to Sakura, that's odd. Normally Naruto would be overwhelming me with the story and ll of its facts.

"Naruto can't remember it very well." Sakura states.

"It just happened so quickly, ya know." I give a small nod, "but I DO remember that I totally punched that guy in the face!" Oh damn. How?

"Why don't you guys tell me the story while we sit down or something?" I ask, it's kind of awkward to just be standing outside of the academy.

Naruto pauses, then suddenly grins, "let's go get some ramen! I've been missing it since we've left!"

"If you're paying, Naruto." Sakura says and Naruto's face immediately drops.

"I'll pay." I volunteer and they both stare at me in surprise. "I've been working at the academy so I should be able to afford it."

The blind pumps a fist into the air in excitement. "Let's go!" He cries before promptly leading the way.

~0~

"Erin, we thought that you were dead." Sakura states with a solemn look. Naruto nods in agreement. "You stopped breathing several times. Both during and after the fight." I stare in surprise. I actually did almost die. I should have died.

"And when you passed out something weird happened to me." I lean forward slightly to hear better. "I got...so angry. The only thing that I wanted to do was to-hurt him. Hurt him really badly." Nerves flare up in my chest but I don't know why.

"I got super strong-but it hurt. But like I said, I managed to punch him in the face. But then I blacked out."

"Because he hit you with his sword. No-actually I think that all he did was touch you with that sword and you were knocked out." They both look at me as if I should be able to explain. And I can.

"Hoshigaki Kisame's sword is called Samehada. Samehada saps out the opponent's chakra and makes Kisame stronger. I managed to keep on fighting because my body can survive without chakra. And Samehada just so happened to hate my chakra."

"You can do that Erin!?"

"Yeah, it's my kekkei genkai." Oh, it feels nice to say that word. I love it so much.

"So...that Kisame guy sucked out all of my chakra with that sword? That makes sense…" I give a small nod, and Naruto's power was probably the nine tailed fox. I pause for a moment to focus my sensing directly on Naruto.

Ray of sunshine chakra, it's really warm. You can tell that he's genuinely happy right now. But…there's something else. Something that's vicious and angry. It's so overwhelming…

I try to bring my focus back into the conversation. "After Naruto was out Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-Kim went after him. But Kisame only focused on Sasuke-kun and soon Sasuke-kun was down! And I watched…" Sakura pauses and looks down.

"Sakura, what you were doing during that fight was one of the most important jobs. At that point, you were looking after Tazuna, Naruto, and I. Without you Kisame would have probably gone after Tazuna in the first place and we would have failed the mission." I reassure, she actually did have the most important job and she needs to know that. "Anyways, what else happened?"

Sakura looks better now, "Kakashi-sensei actually almost lost. But then Gato showed up as if he was expecting the job to be all done! Anyways, he saw that it wasn't and he told Kisame that he was taking too long and that he wasn't planning on paying him in the first place!" Oh damn, Gato sounds like an idiot. "Kisame was really annoyed, like, REALLY annoyed. And then he actually HELPED us deal with Gato! It was super cool! He summoned a bunch of sharks and then he used a tidal wave!" I glance over at Naruto to see the twelve year old pouting over another bowl of ramen.

"I wish that I could see." He grumbles under his breath before going back to eating.

Sakura ignores Naruto and continues. "He took out all of Gato's men in one shot! Then he talked to Kakashi-sensei for a few minutes then kind of said sorry for everything. But I don't think that he really was sorry." She finishes with a sort of confused frown.

"Whatever, let's just hope that we don't have to fight him again." I state with a shrug.

"Are you kidding me!? I want to fight him again and this time I'll WIN, believe it!"

"Naruto that's a terrible idea."

~0~

A/N: I'm sorry that this chapter's so short! It's just that I have a little bit of writer's block. I mean, I know what's going to happen plot-wise but it's not like I've planned out the fact that Erin needs to sometimes deal with the life of a regular person and such! Ugh.


	38. Chapter 37

A/N:*chucks chapter at your face whilst screaming and Naruto-runs away*

Chapter 37:

"I'm sorry that I'm late, I-"

"Oh Erin, it's good to see that you've decided to grace us with your presence on this fine day!" Kakashi greets with annoying cheer, "today we'll start with training and then we'll start our D-rank missions! Erin, I want you specifically to start with ten laps around the training grounds!"

I feel like crying, "you know what, sensei? I was about to say that I slept in but I just remembered that my pet rock died and I had to hold a funeral." Kakashi seems completely unimpressed while I hear the others snicker in the background.

"I'll be right back." I pull my trench coat off, leaving a tank top before starting running.

Unfair. I let out a small sigh, it's not like HE'S ever been late before. I probably showed up just a few minutes after Kakashi. And did he spend somewhere in between three and five hours doing freaking gymnastics last night? Highly unlikely. I just slept through my alarm.

It takes me about fifteen minutes to finish, honestly I'm surprised that it wasn't that hard. Kakashi blinks in surprise when I come back so quickly. I make an effort to give him a small smirk as I go back to my teammates.

He quickly shakes it off and starts the training session. "Good work Erin, I was just making sure that you actually have been training since you got back." You have no idea. "Let's start with sparring. What we're going to do is somebody will start out in the middle, the others take turns attacking, only using taijutsu. You decide the winner when somebody has been pinned or the winner has gotten behind them." This sounds…interesting.

"The winner will stay in the fight until they've lost." Oh, I don't know if I want to be the winner. "Remember, no ninjutsu, genjutsu, or fūinjutsu. Naruto, you go first." Naruto steps forward and I promptly move back. I just want a short break from exercise.

Sakura follows Naruto, huh, she wants to go first. Good for her.

Naruto has other ideas though, "Sakura-chan...I don't know if I wanna fight you, ya know…" Sakura immediately smirks at this, oh no I can tell that Naruto's going to lose.

"It should be easy for me then! Cha!" Sakura suddenly launches forward with a punch and I immediately tell that it would hurt a lot if it actually hit Naruto.

I narrow my eyes slightly, I don't want either Naruto or Sakura to get hurt in a sparring match. But I'm sure that Kakashi will intervene if things get too heated.

So far, Naruto's only focusing on dodging, which is obviously a bad thing because eventually Sakura will manage to hit him.

"Naruto! You can't just keep dodging, actually attack!" Kakashi voices my opinion, but it distracts Naruto. He turns slightly and Sakura takes the chance and actually punches him in the face. And it is very impressive.

Naruto's sent comically far, probably about five metres. He hits a tree hard and slowly collapses to the ground, trying to catch his breath.

I glance at Kakashi who currently has his eye wide with shock. "S-Sakura is the winner!" I immediately move to Naruto so that I have an excuse not to fight Sakura. I mean, I have absolutely no interest in being hit by a blow like that. Jeez, where did that monster strength come from!? She definitely doesn't look that strong.

Whatever, don't judge a book by its cover.

I reach Naruto who is still currently wheezing and offer him a water bottle. He quickly accepts it and I help him up as he starts to drink.

"Sasuke, you're next." Oh thank god.

But in a few seconds I realize that maybe it would be better for Sakura if I was the one who fought her…the second that Sasuke steps forward she becomes a total mess.

She doesn't last very long…

"Sasuke wins. Now Erin." I immediately put on my poker face and move forward. I haven't sparred with Sasuke since we were both in the academy, and I know that he thinks of me as a rival. He's also definitely gotten better since last time. This fight will be tough, I can't let my guard down.

I move into a sparring stance and lift my right hand in a unity sign. Sasuke stairs at me for a second before copying the sign. We stand frozen for several seconds…

Suddenly we have a mental agreement of when to attack and launch forward.

Sasuke attacks with a punch. Huh, the easiest to defend against. I redirect the blow but instead of just letting him run past me I make an effort to get a firm grip on his wrist. Good, he officially only has one arm to fight with...but then so do I. Once Sasuke realizes that I have the upper hand (ha, upper hand) he promptly switches to twisting to break my grip and kicking.

I use his arm against him and pull him in the opposite direction that he wants to go. I should probably make my move soon, I'm just waiting for Sasuke to exhaust himself.

I keep my arm stiff as he attempts to escape again. "Sasuke, don't exhaust yourself. Erin, do something." Gee thanks Kakashi. He just basically told Sasuke what my strategy is and is forcing me to change it.

Before Sasuke gets the chance to react to Kakashi's advice I step my right foot forward and place it so that it blocks his foot. I proceed to twist my body to the left, practically throwing him.

He lands on the ground, accompanied with the sound of air escaping his lungs.

But he quickly stands back up and aims a sharp kick my way. I dodge.

Suddenly I feel air escaping my lungs as I'm hit hard in the chest. I stumble backwards but I don't fall. I look up to see Sasuke paused.

I let out an irritated "tch" and launch to the right. I jump and push myself off of a tree, in midair I twist before aiming an axe kick. Sasuke dodges and my foot hits the group with a loud "thump". I pause, ow…

But I'm quickly moving again when Sasuke retaliates with his own axe kick. This time instead of jumping back I step to the side and as Sasuke lands his foot I lower into a "Cobra Stance" and quickly launch forward with a series of sharp hand strikes. I vaguely hear Naruto cheering for me and Sakura cheering for Sasuke but I ignore them. Sasuke is desperately trying to block my movements, but this fighting style is specifically meant for being fast and difficult to read.

I prepared for a finishing blow with a small smirk-...What is that?

I freeze briefly as I see bright red. What? Is? That?

Suddenly I feel my right hand being gripped and there is a fist right in front of my face. I stare for a moment before abruptly sitting up, gasping for air.

"Sasuke wins." But...but I was just winning a second ago…I force myself up and turn back to Sasuke.

The boy has an annoying smirk of triumph and I narrow my eyes at him slightly. Then I turn my attention to his red eyes. Two tomoe in each I spin briefly before all of the colour disappears and fades into his normal black.

"Sharingan…" I think out loud and the boy immediately raises a brow.

"How do you know what sharingan looks like?" I pause and think through my answer carefully, I open my mouth to speak but I'm interrupted. "You weren't there to see Kakashi-sensei's sharingan." Well, there goes my first lie. I can sense the others watching me curiously.

I have to think fast…if I go into too much detail they might realize that I know more than I should.

"I...I've heard of the Uchiha clan before and what they're capable of...I just made an educated guess." Sasuke doesn't look satisfied with my answer but I ignore him. "And how come I get this odd feeling that using a skill like that in a taijutsu match is somehow cheating?" I glance at Kakashi, hoping that he'll back me up.

But the man shrugs and lifts his hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm...I said no ninjutsu or genjutsu, but I didn't say anything about enhancing your body with chakra…" I frown at him. He can't be serious, they're SHARINGAN. "And besides...I did notice a bit of excessive force on your end, Erin."

I immediately blink in surprise,"when?"

"Mah…with that axe kick if that actually hit Sasuke it could have knocked him out, and with all of those hand strikes you were really going hard on his ribs…" I immediately turn to Sasuke and notice from his chakra signature that he's sending extra chakra to the spots that I hit him.

I awkwardly run a hand through my hair before stepping forward and holding my hand in the unity sign. "Well, sorry Sasuke. I guess that you win." He pauses and gives me a weird look. I raise a brow in a small challenge and the boy copies my sign.

"Hn." I guess that that's an acknowledgment of my apology? I'm not sure? Whatever. I turn around to see Naruto practically jumping in his spot.

"My turn to fight Sasuke, ya know!" He prepares to launch forward but Kakashi's voice stops him.

"No. I think that we're done with training for today, let's start our missions." Naruto immediately deflates and sends Kakashi a glare. "Calm down Naruto, next time you and Sasuke can go first."

Naruto still doesn't look very happy, "grow up moron." The boy immediately turns to Sasuke.

"Say that again, bastard."

"Ok, I think that we're done here…" I automatically move between the two, "Sensei, what are our missions?"

~0~

The second that he said them I knew exactly what was going to happen today. This is the day that team seven meets the sand siblings and almost gets into a fight. To be honest, now it's made me nervous. I hope that Gaara didn't get any worse since we last met, he wasn't crazy or anything...but I could sense that he could easily snap. It would be very bad if he actually did snap, he could easily kill somebody with his sand.

When I think about it, bringing Gaara to Konoha would be one of the worst ideas on Sunagakure's part. I mean, if they weren't planning on assisting Otogakure in their attack. Anyways, the completely new surroundings and lack of familiarity (even though his siblings will be with him) will cause him stress, not to mention the constant hostility and distrust from everyone, though I don't know how much hostility he receives back in Suna, will probably encourage his murderous intent. Sounds like a bad situation to me. The Ichibi could easily be unleashed. And if that happens, not even on purpose Suna will do damage to Konoha and immediately lose trust and might even start a war. I don't want to be part of a war…

"Sensei?" I break myself out of my own thoughts when something comes to mind.

"Hmm?" I'm half-aware of Naruto struggling desperately against an enormous dog.

"Are you going to sign us up for the chunin exams?" The man blinks in surprise and looks down at me.

"You know about the chunin exams?" I give a small nod and Sasuke and Sakura turn around in interest.

"Kakashi-sensei, what are the chunin exams?" Sakura asks curiously and I immediately roll my eyes.

"Exactly what it sounds like." I say with a shrug and she immediately glares at me.

"I wasn't asking you, Erin." She practically hisses, jeez she seems more irritable today. Well...ever since practice.

"Basically it's just the test that you take to become a chunin." Wow, that's an understatement. People literally have to sign a waiver in case they die. "Erin, how did you know that it was coming up?"

I look back up and decide to answer mostly honestly. "A team from Kirigakure showed up the day before you guys got back. I asked them why they were here and they told me that the chunin exams were going to happen in a few weeks. But now...it should be next week." Sakura officially looks nervous while Sasuke officially looks fully interested in this conversation.

"People from other villages…" Sakura says nervously. "And we take our exams with them?"

"Wait-Wait you guys! I didn't say whether or not team seven will participate yet. And besides, I still haven't decided yet." Kakashi waves us off.

Sakura opens her mouth to say more but is quickly cut off by a loud explosion. I jump in surprise when I hear a shocked shreak accompanied with the sound of more explosions. The dog that I had only put about a fifth of my attention to abruptly yipes and pulls its leash out of my hand in its desperate attempt to escape.

"Oh no." I hiss under my breath as it disappears off of the trail and into the trees. I launch after it and immediately regret it when I feel branches whipping painfully at my face. I feel my eyes start to water as even more branches grip my hair as I run by.

I should not have followed the dog. I pause in a clearing and briefly close my eyes to find its chakra signature...ok. I turn and spot a bright red leash beneath a bush. I creep up slowly before promptly grabbing it. I easily drag the dog out before heading back.

The second that I get back I hear Sakura burst into laughter. "...what?" She laughs even harder I narrow my eyes slightly and brush a hand through my hair-oh. The girl continues to giggle as she walks up to me and hands me a mirror. "Thanks-wait why do you have a mirror in your bag?"

Sakura seems to have finally calmed down, "well...I always just keep it with me!"

"Why would you ever need a mirror for training?" I ask with a small sigh. Sakura immediately looks enraged and offended.

"In case of EMERGENCIES. Just like your hair right now! Here, I'll help." She reaches forward but on reflex I smack her hand away and move to do it myself. "Ouch! What's your problem!?" I immediately regret what I just did, I didn't really mean to hurt her but it feels like my hand just moved…

"Sorry, I just don't like people touching my hair." It was at this moment that I noticed Naruto. And I immediately burst into laughter.

He's collapsed on the ground completely covered with dirt and ashes. While his dog sits completely unscathed beside him. I hold up two fingers and add my third one, "three." I've been counting the REALLY bad mistakes that Naruto has made throughout the day: pulled all of the herbs out of a lady's garden instead of all of the weeds, almost fell down a waterfall, and now did one of the worst dog walking jobs. Just like the anime, as expected.

I pause briefly, "Naruto, are you alright…?"

~0~

For the past little while Naruto has needed some help with getting places. All of the while I ask Kakashi more about the chunin exams while half-listening to my younger teammate's conversation.

I'm trying not to let the fact that we're about to meet Gaara's team faze me. If Kankuro actually does do something to Konohamaru, he will have to answer directly to the Hokage. And he will definitely not be happy to hear that a Suna shinobi hurt his grandson. And I'll do my best to make sure that it doesn't happen in the first place, I don't want anyone to get hurt. Maybe I'll be able to talk everyone down before anything bad happens, Kankuro, Temari, and Gaara have met me already.

Or we could just avoid the entire situation…

Or I could be an awful teammate and ditch everyone before anything happens...

"-Naruto, you're such a burden to our squad." I immediately feel myself stiffen at Sasuke's words. What a wild concept, Sasuke being a jerk to Naruto.

I turn and see Naruto aggressively breaking out of Sasuke and Sakura's grip that was helping him walk. Oh no. "We'll see who's such a burden to our squad after we fight!"

"Guys, stop." I step back, "we're a team. We don't gain anything from fighting." Naruto pauses and takes a deep breath but still looks frustrated. I hear a "tch" sound from Sasuke who crossed his arms and looks away childishly.

"Says the person who has always enjoyed insulting others!" Sakura snaps.

"You aren't helping."

"Ok team, we're going to disperse for today." Gee, what a great time for good ol' Kakashi-sensei to leave. Sure, leave me with the overly aggressive teammates.

The man disappears with a puff of smoke. "Good. I'm going home." Sasuke states before turning around and walking away. But unfortunately for him Sakura follows closely behind.

"Sasuke-kun! Why don't we work on our teamwork together?" The girl swoons and I let out an enormous sigh. Much to the girl's delight, Sasuke turns around.

But he doesn't say what she wants to hear.

"I think that you should train on your own first. Especially since you have enough time to be bothering me." Oh, shots fired. "Right now you're even more useless than Naruto." Ok, that wasn't very nice.

Time to intervene, "nobody on our team is better than the other. The only thing that makes people worse than others is being a complete jerk." I direct the last line to Sasuke.

It looks like Sakura's day has been ruined, but she still has enough energy to speak. "But Erin, you're always a jerk." She's obviously expecting a different reaction than what I give her.

I give a small shrug, "well that would probably because I suck as a person. So yeah. I am a jerk, but I don't usually try to make people self conscious and feel belittled. I would rather have someone pissed off at me than them hate themselves." They all stare in shock, "but...I guess that that doesn't excuse me at all. I shouldn't insult others but I still do."

The situation has been diffused, though Sakura still looks hurt and everyone is staring at me. We're stuck in this awkward silence now…

It feels like forever when somebody finally speaks again. "Tch, whatever." Sasuke growls before turning around and taking his leave.

Sakura takes a few steps in his direction but stops herself, "Sasuke-kun…"

"D-Don't worry Sakura-chan! I'll train with you!" The offer is ignored as the girl sulks.

I look around, it should be anytime now. "ERIN-SENSEI!" Oh, would you look at that.

I spot Midori's small figure running at full speed towards us. As usual, her moss green hair has been put into a neat bun and she wears a tan kimono with yellow stripes at the ends of the sleeves.

Sakura turns to me in confusion, followed by Naruto. "Sensei?" They ask in perfect unison and I only answer with a shrug.

The girl reaches us and immediately wraps her arms around my legs. "I miss you, Sensei! You should come back!" A small part of my brain is screaming because of the physical contact but I ignore it.

"Well...sorry, I have shinobi duties." She immediately reacts by puffing out her cheeks grumpily. Huh, this was her first reaction when I first told her that I wasn't going to be helping with teaching at the academy anymore.

She lets go and places her hand on her hips haughtily. "Then what am I supposed to call you!? Just "Erin"!?" I shrug slightly. The girl then notices Naruto and Sakura and proceeds to use me as a human shield. "Who are those people!?"

Her attitude forces a small laugh from me. "They're a couple of my teammates. That's Naruto, and that's Sakura." I gesture to them in turn and Midori immediately sends them a look that could kill.

Her cheeks puff up again, "you stole my sensei." Sakura's clearly having a cuteness overload while Naruto looks genuinely offended.

"Hey! Erin was part of our team before she became a teacher, ya know!" Naruto snaps back with a pointed finger.

There's a moment of silence, before Midori let's out an enormous huff and grips my right hand tightly. "I wanna hang out with you guys." She mumbles.

Great, now I have a five year old stuck with me. "So...what do we want to do now…?" I ask awkwardly, I think that the group was planning on splitting up before Midori showed up… I abruptly stiffen, here comes Konohamaru and friends. I turn and spot a perfect cubic box slowly shuffling its way over to us. I kneel down slightly so I can whisper to Midori. "Do you see that box?" The girl gives a small nod, "that isn't how you sneak up on somebody." She immediately bursts into giggles.

"What silly-willies!" She says with a grin. All of us watch as the box finally makes it to Naruto. He stares at it skeptically.

He takes a step forward…

The box shuffles forward…

He moves again…

The box moves…

The boy suddenly whips around and points at the box furiously. "That's the worst disguise that I've ever seen, ya know! No rock is perfectly square!"

"That was supposed to be a rock?" I ask skeptically and Midori giggles more.

"Hmm, I see that you've seen through our disguise! I would expect nothing less from my rival! Naruto-nii-chan!" The box speaks and it suddenly bursts into a cloud of brightly coloured smoke and I immediately cover my nose and mouth before closing my eyes. I think that Midori dose the same because I don't hear her coughing or complaining. I only open my eyes again when I hear people speaking clearly again. "Geez, I think that we put too much powder in that." I raise a brow, I thought that he would actually be better...he is Ebisu's student after all. I know for a fact that he will only accept perfection.

Maybe he's going easy on Konohamaru because he's the Hokage's grandson. I ponder on that thought for a little while...

Oops, I wasn't paying attention. I glance up to see Konohamaru holding his pinky up at Naruto with a small smirk. Funny, I have no idea what that gesture means…

Naruto looks confused for a second, before smirking himself and nodding. "Yep definitely."

"CHA! NO I'M NOT!" I stare in shock as Naruto hits the fence behind him. I promptly slip my hand out of Midori's and grab Sakura's hand before she can do any more damage.

"Sakura, Naruto literally just went through a minefield!" I snap but it doesn't help at all.

She raises a fist, "that doesn't excuse him!" She pulls away before stomping off.

Konohamaru looks furious, "I can't believe that she did that to Naruto-nii-chan! Ugly bitch!" His friends snap other insults in agreement.

"Konohamaru! Moegi! Udon!" I'm immediately ready to give them an enormous lecture, but it looks like Sakura wants to give them her own.

I don't even stop her, I know that she'll beat the shit out of me.

"Guys...run!" Naruto jumps up and the kids immediately follow. It looks like all of the negative energy has gotten Midori riled up because she practically screams, clearly not thinking about the fact that Sakura isn't after her, and follows the others at full speed. Which is surprisingly fast thinking about how small she is and the facts that she's wearing a kimono.

I pause, not knowing what to do. Sakura gives chase.

This is when it happens.

My pause becomes a freeze since I have no idea what to do.

I think fast, and run after the others. "Konohamaru stop!" This causes the boy to glance over his shoulder...completely missing the Suna shinobi turning the corner.

I feel defeat as the collision occurs. Konohamaru is knocked backwards while Kankuro barely budges.

"Ouch...that hurt." I hear an irritated grumble. Konohamaru sits on the ground rubbing his head in pain.

"You should watch where you're going-"

"I should watch?" By now the group has stopped several metres away, I'm at the back of the group. Kankuro has grabbed Konohamaru by his scarf and lifted him off of the ground. "I think that YOU should watch it, brat."

"Hey! Let go of him!" Naruto snaps angrily. It looks like Kankuro just noticed us, he looks at each of us briefly and he immediately recognizes the ninja headbands. But clearly doesn't recognize me.

"Let go of him, Kankuro. He isn't worth it." I hear Temari sigh from beside him but she is ignored.

"You know, brats like this should be punished. Maybe he'll stop running into people." Alright, that's enough. I won't let anyone touch one of my previous students.

I allow my eyes to narrow angrily as I see the boy tighten his grip on Konohamaru. Any more and it could start cutting off his airway.

"Y-You're hurting me!" Konohamaru barely manages to speak and Naruto takes a step forward.

Sakura immediately grabs his arm and whispers something about him being a shinobi and not making him angrier. But Sakura forgot about me.

I step towards the front of the group and keep my somewhat angry expression. This might be the wrong way to get him to back off but the fact that he's even willing to hurt somebody who's completely defenseless against him pissed me off.

"Let go of him." I order, completely monotonous. I've decided to act as a ROOT shinobi. This is typically how I'm expected to act during training.

"Erin!" Sakura gasps, while the others do something similar.

I stop walking a single foot away. And look up confidently, since he is taller than me.

He stares in confusion, "what'd you say!?"

"I said; let go of him NOW." He still looks down at me in confusion and anger.

"Or else what?" He acts like he just pulled out a trump card. But he clearly doesn't realize that I'm completely ready and willing to beat the shit out of him if he actually does anything to Konohamaru.

I blink, "I will be forced to attack, report back to the Hokage, and escort you to T&I." This is actually in a manual. "And you will also be charged for assault and be sent back to your village." The boy stiffens, I wonder which part of what I said disturbed him the most? Konoha's T&I department is pretty famous. But also how embarrassing would it be to be sent back to your village for hurting a little kid?

Kankuro grumbles something under his breath before finally letting Konohamaru drop to the ground. The boy furiously scrambles away, leaving me.

"Wait a second...I know you!" Wow, would you look at that Temari recognizes me. "You're that girl…"

"Yeah. Now go away." I don't break eye contact with Kankuro as he glares a challenge down at me.

"Kankuro, back off. You're being embarrassing." Both of us freeze and turn. I didn't notice Gaara. I spot the fellow redhead standing on a tree. Upside down.

Kankuro immediately backs up mumbling an apology. Gaara launches off of the tree and lands in between his older brother and sister. I look him over briefly. He seems...different. I don't really know how but he's somehow different from the last time that I saw him.

"I apologize for my brother. It won't happen again." I step back toward my own group with a small nod. They all proceed to take their leave.

I let out a loud sigh and turn around and blink in confusing when I see the others staring at me.

"Erin, you have some explaining to do."

Oh.

~0~

A/N: I think that I'll have to move when you guys should be expecting chapters to every 2-3 weeks. Every time I manage to do it within a week the chapter's either really short of really badly written...sorry guys.

I managed to come up with more Erin fun facts:

-Erin is slowly developing an on and off switch for her emotions.

-The reason why Erin's necklace is rarely mentioned is because Erin keeps it tucked underneath her shirt

-So far, this story has shown Erin having 8 different sensei's: Iruka, her kunoichi class teacher, Ebisu, Kakashi, Gai, the taijutsu instructor, and Boar. Though she has many more because of ROOT.


	39. Chapter 38

Chapter 38:

"Hurry up guys or else we'll be late!" Sakura snaps at us at the top of her lungs. I let out an enormous yawn as I jump from roof to roof.

We're on our way to the academy for the first part of the chunin exams. I'm not very worried about it. Danzo found out that I was signed up for the chunin exams and made me memorize all of the things that a chunin needs to know. But even if I don't know the answers to the written test I can still make it. We technically don't need to answer any of the questions anyway.

I close my eyes briefly as remember the night that I was signed up for the chunin exams.

'"I assure you that you will become a chunin. But do not think of that as an excuse to hold back in the exams." Danzo didn't even look up from his own game of shogi. I wondered who would ever play shogi by themselves. But then I realized that he may just be practicing. "In the foundation, the members regularly have exams to test their improvement and put them into rankings. Currently you're at the very bottom of the rankings since you have yet to be tested or sent on one of the foundation's missions. Imagine the chunin exams as yours. Do not disappoint the foundation. You may take your leave."

I gave a small nod before promptly following his instructions.'

Ever since then I've been training even harder than before. Instead of one full eight hours of sleep a day I have two four hour naps. One nap after all of my missions are done and one after I get back from ROOT training. That makes the flexibility of my schedule very small. It's been affecting my social life. I've had to turn down Minami twice, Midori five times, Naruto fifteen times, also one time I ran into Ebisu but didn't have any time to talk. There have been many apologies.

We pass over a plaza and I see a small boy pointing to us in wonder.

I look back up, we should arrive at the academy soon. As I go I do a little review in my head…various math equations and rules completely fill my head. Before I realize it, we're in front of the academy.

Thank god that it's a Saturday, otherwise there would be little kids everywhere. I could easily imagine a situation just like the one that happened with the sand siblings last week.

I quietly watch as several other teams of genin make their way toward the building, both from Konoha and from other villages.

"Erin, if you're done being in your little world we should go in! Before we're late!" I jump when Sakura breaks me out of my small trance, "and besides, it's already your fault that we almost didn't make it! Tsk, making us stop to get dango!"

I narrow my eyes in irritation and start moving, "I was hungry and I missed breakfast." I answer somewhat quietly since I don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves. It's true, last night my instructor lost track of time and I had to miss my meal or else I wouldn't have my four hours of sleep. Honestly, I don't know what kind of a ROOT member he is if he can't even manage to remember what time it is. But of course that's none of my business...except when I'm forced to skip breakfast. If it happens again I'm going to complain. Maybe I should start wearing a watch at all times…

"Well that's not OUR fault!" I'm too lazy to argue with her right now so I don't say a word. "Erin, are you ignoring me!? Erin!" I let out a small sigh of annoyance, can we just keep walking WITHOUT having to talk?

Lately I've noticed that my teammates have been overly aggressive and irritable. Naruto's always trying to outdo Sasuke. Sasuke being more of a jerk than usual. And for some reason Sakura has been picking fights with me. I'm probably not doing much better but still, it FEELS like I'm currently the only reasonable one here.

Suddenly Sasuke stops and looks down the second floors hallway and I follow suit. "What's going on in there…?" I hear Sasuke mutter under his breath. I immediately know what's going on and smirk.

"It looks like some people have got the wrong room. The meeting room's on the third floor." People are yelling and complaining loudly, I remember from the anime that they sent two chunin who disguised themselves as genin to block the way into the fake room.

"Do you think that we should go and check it out?" Sakura peeks from behind me.

I give a small shrug, "nah, I think that it's a waste of time. Besides, those people should be able to figure it out themselves." Honestly, some of these genin are adults. It shouldn't take to long for somebody to realize that the room should be on the next floor.

Also, we can completely miss the huge waste of time of my team meeting Lee and Gai. I may consider them as friends and I may find Sasuke getting his ass kicked hilarious but I just want to get on with the first exam. Before I manage to forget all of my information...

"Let's go then." Sasuke moves first, quickly followed by the rest of us.

From behind Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura move to my sides, "Erin, what do you think the first exam's gonna be!?" Naruto looks like he's bursting with excitement, oh you just wait.

I give a small shrug, "probably a written test. To weed out the uneducated ones." Naruto immediately deflates and I feel a little bit bad. I just realized that this might actually affect how he does later. "Umm, I could try and teach you some things last minute…"

"We don't even know if there's gonna be a written test!" Sakura quickly interjects, then she glances as Naruto's nervous form and her eyes soften. "But maybe just in case…"

~0~

By the time that we reach the correct door Naruto has already given up. I can tell, at least on learning what Sakura and I are desperately trying to teach him. The boy clutches his head as if the facts and math equations are literally causing him pain. Who knows? Maybe they are…

We stop when we see Kakashi waiting at the room's door, "so all of you decided to show up." He observes and I can sense a smile in his voice. "I'm impressed. Especially with you, Sakura." The pink haired girl starts with surprise.

"I wasn't sure if you were even going to sign up. But I'm glad that you did." He pauses to look at each of us in turn, "actually, normally only three members of a squad are allowed but I managed to make some special arrangements for you guys." I raise a brow...what kind of special arrangements does he mean?

"Well anyways, I'm proud of all of you. Good luck." He then promptly disappears with a cloud of smoke.

We all glance at each other before Sakura and Sasuke step forward to grab the enormous door's handles.

I now decide to ruin the entire moment, "maybe he said all of that because he thinks that it might be his last words to us." I smirk when the reaction is exactly what I had hoped for.

"Erin, why must you always be like this!?" Sakura turns and snaps at me as she pulls at the door. I see Sasuke snort in laughter but he quickly covers it with a cough. I think that Naruto's even more stressed than before.

Sakura's still yelling at me when we enter the large room. This of course draws a lot of attention towards our unusual four man team.

"Sasuke-kun! It's been so long, I've missed you!" Oh no…

The second that we walk through the door Ino pounces. Sasuke didn't stand a chance. He's immediately stuck in a forced embrace. I pause...I feel like I should do something to help…

I let out a small sigh of relief when Sasuke easily shrugs her off. "Go away."

That's when I spot all of the other people in the room. Their looks immediately make me want to turn around and give up on the chunin exams. Their looking at us as if they actually are planning on killing us…

Maybe they are…

My teammates don't seem to notice and I turn to realize that while I was looking at those from other village, my old classmates completely surrounded our group.

Oh, people are catching up.

"We went on a C rank mission and had to fight a giant warthog!" Kiba brags loudly and I let out a small sigh. I'm already tired.

"Well...our first C-rank became a-"

I immediately snap back into attention, "Naruto, we aren't supposed to tell fellow genin about our mission." I quickly interject and the boy deflates.

"Aww…"

The problem is that now that has everyone asking questions. I make an effort to get out of the large circle and find myself standing a few feet away from my fellow rookies. I silently watch as they all interact and I'm suddenly met with this odd feeling.

I'm not even supposed to exist in this world.

Things would be completely different if I wasn't here. Zabuza and Haku would be dead, Naruto would still not have very many friends…

But is that a good thing or a bad thing, I can't think of very many bad things though…

What would have happened to me if I never came to this world?

I would still be with my brother and we would probably still live with Paula, our foster parent since...who would ever actually want to adopt somebody as old as Conner and I? Also, even if I was younger people probably wouldn't want to deal with my issues since I come from an abusive home. I probably still wouldn't really have any close friends since that's the way that it has always been up until I came to Konoha.

Even when I was little I was completely satisfied with just having Conner to socialize with. I remember my first few weeks of elementary school, my mother was tired of dealing with me at home so she decided to put me in a year early. I was four and everyone else was five or six. I had no idea how to talk to anyone or especially play. I had been terrified.

My teachers didn't help very much since I always assumed that they should have been angry at me for something or wanted to hurt me in some way. But now when I think back they probably had no ideas on how to deal with me. Because I didn't act like a normal kid. I always made an effort to sit alone at lunch and recess, I only played the games in gym because I had to, I typically just entertained myself.

I remember that I made some of the other kids cry. Because I didn't understand their games and social skills. One time some kids convinced me to play cops and robbers with them, I was a robber and a kid decided that instead of just tagging me he would grab my arm. I panicked and ended up breaking his nose.

My lack of social skills...ended up encouraging a lot of bullying…-

But now I have several people who I care about. Minami, Naruto, Midori, Sakura, Lee, Gai, Kakashi, Suigetsu...and I guess Sasuke too. Even if Conner isn't here I think that being in this world has done a lot of good things for me.-

"You look lonely." I jump at a voice and turn to see Kabuto.

I narrow my eyes slightly and cross my arms, "just because I'm alone doesn't mean that I'm lonely." He studies me briefly before crossing his own arms himself and letting out a loud sigh.

"Still as hostile as always, I see. Even after what I did to help you." I immediately stiffen. That's right, I owe him.

"Ooo, Erin who's this?" I stiffen even more when I feel somebody using my shoulder as an armrest. Well, at least they aren't using my head.

"Oh hi, I'm Yakushi Kabuto!" He waves and clearly makes an effort to smile. I spot the rest of my group walk up from the corners of my vision, Kabuto's smile becomes a small smirk. "I was just wondering if you guys were going to be this loud for the entire exam."

"Eh!?" I hear Naruto and Kiba snap at exactly the same time.

"Just look around you. Everyone's on edge right before the chunin exams and you guys aren't really helping the situation." Wow, it seems as if my fellow rookies have only just realized that we aren't the only ones here. Meanwhile, I scan the crowd for people that I may recognize.

The first people that I spot are the sand siblings but I don't give them a second glance. I don't have to worry about them right now.

I wonder if I can spot the hidden sound shinobi-oh hey, there's Suigetsu's team. It looks as if Suigetsu was already trying to catch my eye and when we make eye contact he gives a small wave. I wave back and continue my search.

I spot them and immediately narrow my eyes. They were already watching us, of course like most of the people in this room. But their looks are slightly different. They're probably interested in Sasuke and I since they work for Orochimaru. At this moment I'm in a staring contest with the one that is almost completely wrapped in bandages, hmm, if I end up getting into a fight with any of these guys I can't afford to hold back. I smirk slightly and I see the man narrow his eyes, yes explosives will be involved.

"Erin, is it even possible to have your attention for over five minutes before you get distracted!?" I hear Sakura's voice and I feel her shaking my shoulder. I pause to memorize their chakra signatures before turning.

"Hmm, did somebody say something?" A collective sigh passes through the entire group and I raise a brow in confusion.

"Apparently not." Sakura places her hands on her hips and shakes her head. She gestures behind her and I lean forward slightly to see Kabuto kneeling on the ground with several cards spread out. Oh, the infor cards.

Kabuto gives me a small smile, "oh, I was just wondering if you knew of anyone in the chunin exams that you wanted to know the stats of." I blink, of course there are. Suigetsu, Haku, their teammate that I can't remember the name of, Neji, the sound team, I even want to see my own.

But I shake my head, I don't want to owe Kabuto more than I already do.

He frowns, "are you sure?" I shake my head again before proceeding to size up more of my future opponents.

Lee's team and several others came in while we were talking to Kabuto. Damn, the people here look pretty tough.

"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE US! WE'LL KICK ALL OF YOUR BUTTS IN THE CHUNIN EXAMS! YOU GOT THAT!?" I curse very loudly in English and turn to see Naruto pointing at our fellow genin. He pauses with a smirk before relaxing, "ahh, that feels much better."

"Naruto." My scolding tone becomes more aggressive, "don't, do that."

The blond looks surprised and I realize a little bit scared. His grin falls and he looks at the ground, "o-ok…"

I let out a small sigh, "sorry, you just surprised me."

"Did Erin just apologize?" I spot Shikamaru raising a brow. "I think that the world is ending."

I ignore him when I sense a chakra signature change slightly.

Somebody's building chakra for a jutsu.

I swear to god, I thought that I've put up with enough bullshit for this chapter…

It's the sound shinobi from before, oh now I remember. He attacks Kabuto and that's when Ibiki makes his entrance to start the first exam. I blink when I realize something, I could stop him and somehow owe Kabuto a little bit less.

I nod slightly when I make my decision, "guys, watch out." I step ahead of the others and get ready. Time to show off my ROOT training.

They're moving too fast to see so I follow their chakra signatures.

Almost here…

Now!

I feel chakra flare from my chest and into my lungs. My hands move and end in a tiger hand seal.

"Fire Release: Searing Embers!" I hold back a little bit so the damage won't be too great but it still has the effect that I had hoped for.

The bandaged one almost immediately catches fire and yells with surprise and pain. His team lands a couple of metres away from me.

The quiet murmurs from people's conversations have completely vanished now. Now all eyes are on us again, specifically me and the sound team.

It looks like the bandaged guy somehow managed to put out the flames without really moving. His teammates look efficiently pissed off.

"What the hell was that!?" The other male snaps.

I narrow my eyes and cross my arms, "I should be asking the same thing. What were you guys planning on doing? Don't lie, I could sense your chakra." I sense team seven now flanking me, ready for any conflict.

"We-" The girl is cut off by a loud exploding sound. I cover my nose with my sleeve when smoke surrounds us. I guess that most others are smart enough to do the same but I hear a few of the rookies coughing.

The smoke finally clears and I see the proctor for the first exam, flanked by a large group of chunin.

"What is the meaning of this?" I can't help but stiffen when Ibiki glares down at our group.

There is a moment of awkward silence before the bandaged guy (who you can now see has several burns and scorched...bandages) steps forward. "We apologize. The chunin exams have us on edge so we reacted irrationally." I narrow my eyes into a glare when he turns to me, "luckily Konoha's shinobi managed to stop us before somebody got hurt." But the team's eyes tell a completely different story.

I look back up, Ibiki clearly is not impressed. "From now on, if a participant in the chunin exams attacks a fellow genin without the permission of a proctor they will be disqualified. Understand?" People nod and give murmurs of agreement. Ibiki turns without a second glance. "Good. Now follow me."

Finally.

~0~

A/N: enjoy this hypothetical conversation between your author and the protagonist in this story.:

Erin: But seriously, why was there so much bullshit in this chapter?

Me: Well, we can't skip things like this. There would be too many plot holes.

Erin: You mean like the huge one that you probably should have had a chapter on? But you didn't bother to write it because you're so desperate to get to the chunin exams?

Me: Well-I-uh, yeah I guess so.

Erin: Also, I have several complaints.*takes out sheet of paper*

Me: Oh no…

Erin: Why did you put me in ROOT? It's only going to make my life difficult and miserable.

Me: So you can become ridiculously strong and skilled! Also for some angst.

Erin: Oh...whatever. Why did you tell your readers that I'm going to have three kids!? I don't want kids!

Me: Because...you're gonna have three kids…? You're a character in a story and the writer can basically do whatever they want.

Erin: Wait a second...do you already have my entire life planned out?

Me: Basically, but I might make a few changes as I write.

Erin: So that means you have future knowledge...I want answers!

Me: I think that we're done here! Say goodbye to everyone!

Erin: Wait-


	40. Chapter 39

Chapter 39:

As we follow Ibiki through the hallways Suigetsu and the rest of his squad catches up with my squad.

"So you have fire style, what other jutsu do you have up your sleeve?" Suigetsu asks with a toothy grin as I falls in beside me.

I open my mouth to answer but I'm interrupted, "who the heck are you!?" Naruto points at Suigetsu aggressively and I can't help but facepalm.

Suigetsu looks mildly offended, "I'm Erin's friend. I'm assuming that you're one of her teammates…?" I notice Sakura looking back at us.

"Oh, you must be Suigetsu-kun! Erin told us about you the other day!" Sasuke turns his head from beside her and I immediately know that he's sizing him up.

Suigetsu smirks and straightens his back, "yeah, that's me." Suddenly his smirk becomes a frown, "wait...are you guys a team of four…?" He trails off.

"No more talking beyond this point." I hear Ibiki snap as we come to a stop, "as you enter the room a chunin should give you a sheet of paper telling you your seat number."

The genin slowly form a single file line and slowly enter the room. When it's finally my turn I have to stop in front of the line but the man doesn't look up from his board.

"Name."

"Latté Erin." He pauses for a moment but he might have just been looking for my name.

"Team."

"Seven." Now his look is a little bit skeptical.

"Oh, the team of four." He looks up with a small smirk before handing me a sheet of paper. "Good luck." I have a bad feeling...but I simply dip my head in thanks before leaving to find my spot.

I quickly find it in basically the middle of the room. I silently take a seat and glance down at a sheet of paper, a pencil, a pencil sharpener, and an eraser. I let out a small sigh of relief, I was already basically sure that it wouldn't change but the idea of the exams changing has been at the back of my mind for a while.

It only takes a few more minutes for the room to fill. Tragically now I'm stuck with Kabuto on my left and Gaara on my right. Good thing we aren't allowed to speak.

I close my eyes briefly, Sasuke's several rows behind me, Naruto and Sakura are both in the set of rows to my right. Huh, we all have at least one teammate in the same set of rows as us, that's oddly convenient.

Everyone snaps back to attention. Ibiki silently studies all of us before smirking. I watch as people immediately stiffen. "Before we begin the written exam I would like to explain some rules." I glance to the right and see Naruto physically reacting. "First off, each question that you answer correctly will equal one point, in total there will be ten questions. Each of you will start with one point and if you skip or get a question wrong you will lose a point."

He pauses with a small smirk. He obviously knows exactly how people are going to react to what he's about to say. "And if you're caught cheating you will lose two points. If a single person loses all of their points, their entire squad will fail the chunin exams." I lean back and let out a small sigh as I immediately hear shouts of protest and see people standing up. From the corner of my eye I spot Naruto clutching his head, I feel bad for him. He has no idea that he can pass this exam without even writing any answers.

I on the other hand, can't afford to not answer any questions. Along with this being the chunin exams, this is also a test from the foundation.

"You look confident." I hear Kabuto's voice and turn my head slightly.

"I've been studying. Also, we aren't supposed to be talking." People gradually calm down. Please, I just want to get started.

"Currently there are only nine questions on your tests, after forty five minutes I will give you the last question." His eyes rake across everyone in the room, as if he's looking at each and every person. "You may begin." I don't hesitate and flip my page over. I briefly skim over the questions and let out a sigh of relief. I've learned all of these concepts...except for one...but when I look at it again I remember learning it in high school.

I quickly get to work, and I think that I might have finished in record time when I lean back to check over my work…

I glance up at the clock, that took me in between fifteen and twenty minutes. Not bad. But I could be better, I think that what hindered me the most in the test is how slowly I write. I obviously couldn't do it in English or else nobody would understand what I wrote if they were looking through it.

I glance around, oh the panic that you can feel in this room. But I think that most of the people have figured out that the way to pass this test is to cheat. Hmm, I wonder how many people are cheating off of me now.

Suddenly I hear a quiet crumpling sound and glance down. Huh, a crumpled piece of paper. I glance around to check that nobody's watching, then lean forward to pick it up. I unfold it in my lap and read the contents.

OUR TEST DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS

NEED ANSWERS

-SASUKE

I don't turn around, I make an effort to not physically react. They made our questions different from everyone else? That must be because we're the team of four , forces us to work specifically as a team. No wonder they put us in the same sets of rows.

I think for a moment, Sasuke used his sharingan to copy other people's hand movements in the anime. He should be able to do it now. I pause, hoping that Sasuke is watching at the moment, and casually scratch the back of my head. While doing this I pause for just a second, allowing my hand to form into a sign.

MISSION CONFIRMED

What? Konoha shinobi's sign language isn't meant for full conversations.

From behind me I hear a pencil tap three times, probably Sasuke communicating that he saw me and is still watching. I quickly set to work, I start tracing over my words.

It doesn't take very long, maybe less than a couple of minutes. When I finish I hear three taps of a pencil again. I let out a tired sigh and lean back, I wonder if I could nap?

Nope. That is a very bad idea, probably one of the dumbest that I have ever had. Having a nap in the middle of a chunin exam, pff.

I sit there, bored for several more minutes but suddenly...something doesn't feel right.

A wave of nausea passes over me, the room spins. It seems to happen so fast that I don't even realize my vision going black.

~0~

My head burns...chakra.

I open my eyes to find myself completely surrounded by darkness. It seems familiar but I can't quite remember it…

I pause before squinting into the darkness, there's a shape coming this way. Soon I recognize it as another person, he seems just as confused as me.

"-the hell is this!?" His words echo through the entire space as he stops a couple of metres in front of me. He has long blond hair and brown eyes, pain closer inspection I recognize the Yamanaka symbol attached to his shirt sleeve. Oh now I recognize this place, it's where we went when Inoichi was trying to communicate with me before I knew any Japanese.

But then I realize that this boy was trying to pull a mind switch. I step forward and he immediately steps back, "you can't cheat off of me. My team's tests are different from everyone else." I pause, "get out."

My voice echoes across the black space, quickly followed by dead silence. When the boy doesn't move I speak again, "get out or I'll force you out."

Oops, wrong thing to say. The boy immediately narrows his eyes at me, "you think that you can beat the Yamanaka's mind transfer!?" He takes a step forward and I don't move.

I've kicked Inoichi out even if it was by accident, this guy shouldn't be a problem. But I notice the boy smirking, "even if you are telling the truth and your test is different, I may as well take control and make you quit the chunin exam." Well that's a bit of a dick move.

We both jump in surprise when the thought rings through the entire space. I feel my ears become hot with embarrassment, I'm going to have to be more careful with what I think if he's in here.

The boy glances around for a second before continuing, "besides, you don't even have the right to be a shinobi of Konoha. You're an outsider and probably just trying to earn Hokage-sama's trust." Oh whatever, this guy doesn't matter at all in my life. "And for a bonus I'll get the demon fox out of the exams!"

Ok, I'm done with this, I close my eyes. I focus on the chakra in my head and attempt to drag it out.-

I feel a weight slamming into my side and am sent flying. I land on the ground with the wind knocked out of me. My head aches and burns far more intensely than before.

I clutch my head and slowly force myself to stand. I look up to see the boy right in front of me, that's the moment that I realize that I'm going to lose. Faster than I can follow he lunges forward, hitting my jaw.

I'm knocked backwards and it feels like my heads spinning. I don't even get a chance to recover before I feel a strike to my stomach and I'm thrown backwards once again.

But this time instead of falling freely, I feel my back hit something rock hard before my body crumples. I try to get up again but I feel something pressing painfully into my rib cage. I open my eyes to see the boy glaring down at me from above. He twists his foot that's on my side and I can't help but cry out in pain.

"That's what you get you-" He's cut off by a deafening sound that I can't even recognize. It sounds like a roar mixed with a scream. From the hard place that my back is pressed against I feel a burning energy seeping through.

I don't even register what's happening but I know that I managed to stand up. My body seems to be moving against my will. My eyes come back into focus for half of a second and the only thing that I can catch is the boy's terrified face.

My eyes lose focus again and I feel the burning energy completely surrounding me. It sounds so far away but I swear that I hear a scream.-

~0~

The first thing that I feel is terrible nausea. It takes me a moment to realized that I'm hunched over.

I let out a huge sigh, trying to control my breathing so I don't make my sickness worse. I sit up and stare in surprise since I'm still in the exam room. I immediately look up at the clock, whatever just happened in my mind took about five minutes. Ugh, my headache is terrible, well apparently that's what it feels like to have the shit beat out of you in your mindscape…

Wait-the boy~where is he!? Is he alright!? I look around and within a few seconds I spot a mop of blond hair laying across a table about ten seats away.

Should I do something? I have no idea what happened but I think that he might be in danger. I'd imagine that it could actually be pretty dangerous for somebody to be forced out of somebody else's mind...place...whatever.

But now I remember that I'm not doing very well myself. All of a sudden I realize that there is chakra flowing throughout most of my body. I immediately try to force it back into my necklace but it doesn't move. Something's wrong. Something is very wrong.

I shoot my hand up and I see Ibiki sharply turn his head in my direction. "What?" All eyes are on me now, I see Naruto staring in confusion.

"I need to go to the bathroom. Now." He stares at me for a second before nodding his head.

A chunin, luckily a woman, stands and quickly moves to my row. I stand and feel my legs shaking as I do so. Gaara stands up to get out of my way and as soon as I reach her the woman holds my hands behind me snaps chakra cuffs onto them. From there she leads me out of the room.

As I walk past him Ibiki leans forward slightly with a grin that I'm pretty sure could make infants cry. "I hope that you enjoyed your nap." I stiffen for a moment before deciding to ignore him.

Luckily the bathroom is only a couple of hallways away-I don't know how much longer I can keep going.

As soon as we enter I feel the woman free me from my handcuffs and turn me around. "What happened?" As she asks this she places a hand on my forehead, I would jump away but I feel too awful. "Answer me."

Suddenly I recognize her as my taijutsu instructor. "Somebody attempted a mind transfer and I don't know how, but I forced them out." My speaking sends a wave of intense nausea through me and I'm forced to pull away.

I jog to one of the stalls and immediately feel my stomach heave. "I will bring you some water. Don't move." Well there goes my plans.-

My own thoughts are interrupted when I start to gag.

~0~

By the time she came back I actually managed to throw up twice. The first time was my dango and the second time it was just bile with a little bit of blood.

I step out of the stall to see that she's back but when I reach out from the water she drops it and jumps back. "What?" I ask, my eyes widen as she reaches for a dagger.

"Step back. Now."

"But what-"

"NOW!" I practically leap back when she takes a swipe at me.

~0~

A little girl jumped out of a car with excitement. Her mother followed after, clearly lacking interest. The girl immediately spotted the park and made a run for it, but her mother stayed by the car.

The girl played on the swings for quite a while but then she saw her mother get into the car. "M-Mom?" She stopped, the car's motor started. "Mom!"

She ran at full speed as to not be left behind. The car had only just started inching forward when she reached it. "Mommy, let me in!" The car started moving faster and the girl's cries started getting more desperate.

The girl made a choice, her next move would definitely get her mother to stop moving. She ran in front of the car. It lurched to a stop, but instead of a shocked and apologetic look that she expected. She only saw fury on her mother's face.

"Get back!" The woman snarled after opening the window.

"But I-"

"NOW!" The girl stared blankly for a moment, before following her mother's orders.

Tears started to stream down her face as she watched the car drive away.

~0~

What a fantastic time to remember this..I stumble backwards until I feel my back his the wall and slowly sink to the ground. Against my will I feel a couple of tears roll down my cheeks. I can't breath.

My instructor carefully steps forward her dagger is still in her hand. Suddenly my fear and desperation is replaced by intense anger. How dare she make me remember that! What did I do to deserve this!?

Wait, what is wrong with me? I need to calm down.

I try to breath deeply but it isn't working. Even though just did something little, I feel like I've never been this angry before.

I try to just focus my all of my attention into holding onto the loose fabric of my pants. But soon my attention is on how annoyingly tight my gloves are, in my fit of rage I rip them both off and throw them across the bathroom.

But what I see is a sickening reminder.

The blood vessels on my hands are pure black and bulging. "What's happening to me?" My voice is no more than a whisper. I cringe when I feel a searing pain in my hand. One of my blood vessels just broke. "WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME!?" I stand and yell at my instructor, surely she can help me.

She simply jumps back as if I'm some sort of a monster, "don't come any closer." Her reaction only fuels my anger.

"WHY I YOU JUST STANDING THERE!?" I hear a loud cracking sound I look down. There is a crack in the floor tiles.

"You need to calm down. Take deep breaths." What a freaking idiot.

"YOU THINK THAT I HAVEN'T TRIED THAT!?" My voice sounds oddly ruff.

She pauses, I hate that unemotional face. I hate her. I watch, almost ready to pounce as she reaches into her small bag before taking out a pill.

"You're lucky that I have these." She carefully steps forward to place three pills onto the counter before quickly retreating. "Take them. They should calm you down."

It takes all of my willpower to get to them without launching forward. I gingerly hold them in my hand, I wonder what's in these? One of them cracks in my hand and I can't afford to think about it anymore so I dry swallow all of them.

The effect is almost immediate, I can sense my breathing slowing down but I can't control my chakra yet.

I look in the mirror and jump back.-I'm...terrifying.

All of the blood vessels in my face are clearly visible and black. And my eyes...are silver and slitted like a reptile's. I lift a hand to my mouth and much to my horror my teeth are sharpened.

I stumble backwards and feel myself landing on the ground. "Why is this happening to me?" I ask quietly to nobody in particular.

My feelings slowly fade away and I draw my chakra back to my necklace. But the problem is...I feel like I feel nothing.

"Are you better?" Well mentally and physically I don't feel well but everything else is fine.

I don't say that but I just nod. She holds out a hand and I grab it before pulling myself up. "I suggest that after you finish this test you visit a hospital. And if possible avoid using the power that you discovered today." I don't even know where it came from in the first place but whatever. "Training is cancelled tonight." She finishes before putting by cuffs back on and leaving the bathroom. I follow silently.

We reach the room and Ibiki turns around to give me a smirk. "Nice to see that you've decided to grace us with your presence, Latté-san." Huh, I feel like I've heard that line before.

I ignore him as I'm led to my seat. My instructor takes off the cuffs and I silently sit down.

Huh, Ibiki's still watching but I don't particularly care.

"As I was saying, I'm about to give you your final question. But we're going to add a couple of rules…" I block him out to think.

I wonder what that was? My chakra went absolutely crazy, and it felt like I was too. Why did I run into a wall when we were fighting in my mind?

I look up to see many people getting up and leaving. "-Hey! Something's wrong with our teammate!" I glance at a boy around my age.

Without another word he runs to-the guy who attempted the mind switch with me. He shakes him but he falls out of his chair. I stand to get a better look as chunin completely surround him. No, I didn't. Did I?

I couldn't have killed him.

"Get him to the hospital!" One of them shouts and I get a sinking feeling. He can't be dead.

I watch as they carefully pick him up, I let out a sigh of relief. He isn't dead, he still has a chakra signature.

Ibiki frowns as he disappears through go door with his teammates following close behind. "...anyone else?" I can sense even more pressure in the room compared to before. Well of course, somebody was just dragged to the hospital. In the very first part of the exam. Ibiki starts pacing, "remember...if you get the last question wrong you both fail and you can no longer take the chunin exams. That means that those who get this question wrong will be stuck as genin forever." He smirks at the last part, of course I could care less. Even if I didn't have future knowledge but forcing somebody to stay a genin forever just for a stupid test must be illegal. Especially if you're telling this to genin from other villages.

We sit there for at least thirty seconds, dead silent. I keep an eye on Naruto, he should start shouting at any time now. Then this will be over.

-And I really need to Ibiki.

Oh yes, finally. Naruto slowly and shakily raises his hand. Ibiki smirks, "well, well wh-"

"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE US! WE'RE GONNA PASS THESE EXAMS AND SOMEDAY I'LL BE HOKAGE!" Well this is actually pretty embarrassing. Naruto sits back down with a huge grin on his face, I feel all of the tension disappear.

Ibiki lets out a small sigh, "well, I guess that that's everyone…"

"Now," everyone stiffens. "For those who have decided to stay…"

Please just get this over with I'm not feeling well.

"You all…"

People lean forward and watch Ibiki intently.

"Pass!" There is an immediate uproar of people, I lean back in my chair to make sure that if anybody fell they wouldn't land on me.

"What are you talking about!?" Ibiki calmly waits for everyone to calm down.

"I'm saying that every person in this room has passed the first chunin exam." He has a more cheerful note, his voice at the moment kind of reminds me of Kakashi's.

"Wait, but what about the last question!?" Sakura cries in confusion, man, how would I be reacting to this if I didn't have any future knowledge?

"The last question was you deciding to take the last question." He explains without moving from his spot.

"So...are you telling us that all of the other questions were pointless as long as we stayed for this question!?" Yes.

"It wasn't useless, a shinobi must be good at intelligence gathering. So we tested that by giving you tests that nobody at genin level should be able to pass without cheating, and then we place a few chunin for you to cheat off of." Three people wave and stand up and wave from among the desks. "As for the final question, imagine that you were the leader of a very important mission. The village was at stake, but if you continued the mission there would be a very evident danger of your entire squad being wiped out. But what is the right decision?"

I frown, I know that the right answer is to do the mission but I mildly disagree. But then how many lives would be saved if somebody completed the mission compared to how many lives would be lost if somebody failed or quit?

"You would complete the mission of course! Especially if the well being of your village is at stake. You should all consider it an honour to die for your home!" He pauses for effect, before taking off the bandana that was covering his head. What he shows is, well, a lot of scars. Burn scars, wounds that were obviously from whips, all that you can think of. He ties the fabric back on and shoves his hands in his pockets. "All of you have shown signs of becoming fine chunin, so-"

He is abruptly interrupted when somebody crashes through the window. She moves so quickly that the next thing that we see is an enormous flyer hanging at the front of the room.

"Listen maggots!" Anko stands with pure confidence in front. "I am the proctor for your next exam! Mitarashi Anko is my name!" She is followed by dead silence.

"Hey, what's up with you guys?"

I almost laugh when Ibiki steps out from behind the giant flyer. "Read the situation." He growls, Anko deflates for a second before regaining her composure.

"Hey Ibiki, you let this many people slip past? Also, I thought that you were supposed to try your best to get rid of the team of four." Wow, way to put us on the spotlight Anko. Very helpful.

"A lot of people this time around show potential."

Anko lets out a small sigh before recovering with a devilish smirk. "No need to worry, the next test should wipe out over half at them." That brings plenty of unease, but the only thing that I can think about at the moment is this experience ending. "Anyways, your sensei's will give you the time and location for tomorrow. Now get out of here, ya maggots!" People immediately stand and start leaving.

I would do the same but I have something far more important to do. "Erin!" Naruto and Sakura wave in excitement but I have to ignore them as I walk towards my target.

"Ibiki-san," I stop in front of him and stand attention.

"Hmm, what?" He was in the middle of a conversation with Anko and several chunin when he turns to me. His eyes flash in recognition.

I gulp and make an effort to hold my back straight. "You know that boy who had to be taken to the hospital?"

He turns his full body to look at me now, man he's practically towering over me. "Yes?" From the corner of my vision I spot my instructor watching us intently.

"I-It was my fault." There was a moment of silence, before Ibiki smirks.

"Alright, come with me." He roughly grabs my shoulder and practically drags me after him. Everyone stares.

I really hope that T&I isn't that bad if I cooperate…

~0~

A/N: Finally! Quite a lot of drama has happened in this chapter. I wonder if I will ever update without being late? Who knows?

Here's a fun fact:

-Erin usually doesn't use her sensei's first names if you haven't noticed. This is because ever since she was little he has never made an effort to learn her teacher's names. Like in our world she would just call her teachers "Ms" "Mrs" or "Mr." For this world it's just "Sensei."


	41. Chapter 40

Chapter 40:

My nerves are starting to get the best of me, and I already don't feel well. I want to run away but at this point I know that I literally can't.

Ibiki has let go of my shoulder now, a small relief since it hurt. Now we're just jumping from rooftop to rooftop at a speed that I'm not used to.

I'm genuinely surprised when we stop at the hospital, "wait...aren't we going to the T&I department?" I can't help but ask. I immediately regret the question when Ibiki gives me a strange look.

"That's for later. Right now you're needed here." I'm needed here? What does that mean?

I silently follow him in, he stops at the front desk to say something quietly. The woman leans forward to get a better look at me before nodding and saying something.

"This way." I stiffen when he grabs my shoulder again, this is getting annoying.

"I can just follow you…" I mutter the complaint and pull away slightly. All that he does is tighten his grip.

We walk through several halls before I see a familiar face… "Erin!? What's going on!?" Minami snaps before talking quietly to Ibiki. There's a moment of silence before she nods and falls in beside me.

"Minami, what's happening? Why am I in the hospital?" She just shakes her head.

After a few minutes we stop by a door. A couple of people are sitting outside, one an older woman and the other is a little boy-and the boy is-pure white…

And his eyes have a pink tint to them.

Albino.

"Get going." I didn't realize that I had slowed down, I'm roughly pushed into the door.

I've never been in an emergency room before. When I enter all that I can tell is that it's basically complete chaos.

Both nurses and doctors are crowding the room, it's definitely an emergency. "Hmm, what is it? Can't you see that we're busy?" A doctor stops to snap at us.

"Actually, I think that I might have found somebody who can help you." Ibiki looks down at me and the doctor follows his gaze.

"Her?" Ibiki nods.

"Uhh, me?" I follow.

"You're the one who did this, you might be the only one who can fix this." Very encouraging. Thanks Ibiki.

"I'll be right beside you." Minami puts a hand in my shoulder with a small smile. My nerves are going through the roof…

"So what do I do?" I ask uncertainly.

The doctor pushes up his glasses, "remove the cancerous chakra from the victim's brain." Oh jeez…I don't have any ideas on how to do that. "Now, you need to hurry or else we might lose the patient!" Ohmygodohmygodohmygod…

The doctor moves and I feel Minami put the smallest amount of pressure on my shoulder, I follow. A few people part ways to let us move through. The man stops in front of a hospital bed and ushers me to his side.

It's the boy who attempted the mind transfer, but now he looks very different. I see a dark bruise on his cheek and his face seems to be stuck in a grimace of pain. To add to that...I can see black blood vessels blossoming from the back of his head, and slowly spreading.

I flinch when suddenly one of the blood vessels disappears and I can tell that blood is swelling the skin.

"Look at me," I silently turn to stare at the doctor. He holds up his hands before a green energy flows smoothly over his hands, "control your chakra just like this." His voice is completely, probably so he doesn't stress me out more than he already has.

I copy his hand movements before focussing my chakra, I feel like this should be somewhat easy, I think that I did something similar to this when I was fighting Kisame. There's a moment before black chakra engulfs my hands, dark whisps occasionally break off before disappearing.

The man looks surprised for a moment but continues, "now I want you to put your hand near his head." I do so. "Now, you're a sensory type right? Can you sense your own chakra." I close my eyes for a second, yes.

I nod my head, the man smiles and I feel the hand that Minami left on my shoulder squeeze lightly. "Good, now I want you to imagine the chakra in your hands grabbing and dragging it all out." I turn back, I'm assuming that this is the hard part.

I reach out with my chakra, ok…I think that I can do this-

The boy suddenly starts thrashing even though I can tell that he's unconscious. I jump in surprise and quickly pull back nurses surround me and hold down the boy's limbs.

I don't know if I can do this.

I could kill him by accident, I can think of at least ten ways this could go wrong. The one that I'm most worried about is just doing more damage with my chakra…

But I know that I have to do this, or else he definitely will die.

I take a deep breath and and reach out again. This time I make an effort not to stop when he starts trying to flail again. I close my eyes and focus…

I feel the chakra from my hands mold smoothly with the chakra in his head. I move quickly and drag it out, ignoring the struggling and the strange sound that he's making.

Before I realize that I finished I'm moved out of the way as nurses get to work.

I feel the chakra return to my necklace and let out a sigh of relief. "Erin, you did it!" Minami cries in excitement.

"Yeah…" I mutter and lean against a wall.

"Not too bad, but we aren't done yet." Ibiki steps forward and all that I can think of for a reaction is a sigh.

"Hold on-are you alright?" She suddenly presses a hand against my forehead, "you're freezing!"

"I'm fine." Is my automatic response.

"Are you sure? You're really pale…"

"Yeah." I lightly push her away, "let's go." I then silently follow Ibiki, leaving Minami behind.

~0~

I silently place pass of my weapons onto the front desk. Huh, I've been pretty quiet so far. Even in the hospital I moved and did everything with barely any words.-I think that it's the medication that my taijutsu instructor gave me might be making me more...what's the word? Subdued. The feeling that I have is kind of hard to describe, it's as if I'm aware of my emotions but I feel very dulled versions of them.

I finish off by placing my trench coat on the desk before moving to follow Ibiki. "Wait!" I jump and turn around, "your necklace, please." The man holds out his hand, well now what?

"I can't take it off."

"Bullshit."

"No literally, I can't take it off." As an example I grab the pendant and attempt to pull it off. As usual it stops just a little bit past my chin.

There's a moment of silence before the man nods to a random guard. The next thing that I know it, a strange person is fidgeting with the necklace that is AROUND MY NECK. Trying to get it off but it isn't working out very well for them.

They finally finish by trying to break my necklace with a kunai. Annoying, very annoying. As if nothing happened the man nods for us to continue, luckily on the way Ibiki doesn't feel the need to question me.

We stop in front of a large metal door...I think that I might be getting the faint smell of-blood. That smell is blood. "Get in and stay here." I comply, when I enter I immediately notice how menacing this room is. I hear the door shut and lock behind me.

Dimly lit, I have to squint my eyes to see the corners of the room. I can still smell the faint metallic hint of blood. There's also a digital clock at the end of the room, I frown, why is it ticking? What kind of a digital clock actually ticks?

There's also a couple of metal chairs in the centre of the room.

Since it appears that I have nothing better to do I take a seat. I wonder how long I'll be stuck down here? I hope that it isn't too long because I have the second exam tomorrow, but-am I even going to be allowed to continue with the chunin exams after this? But I want to at least be in the second exam so I can try to keep Sasuke away from Orochimaru.

I let out a sigh and lean back, maybe I should have tried to keep my team from entering at all. In the show nobody in team seven ends up being a chunin so is it really worth it?

But then Danzo said that he would try his best to make me a chunin.

But a small part of me feels like I should quit. Especially since I just discovered this strange power that I can't seem to control, even now I can feel the pills effects fading. But at least for now my chakra isn't reacting.

I glance up at the clock, wait, how has an entire hour passed!? I couldn't have been down here for that long.

I lean forward in my chair and watch the clock intently. It takes me a few minutes to figure out exactly when the time changes. I make an effort to block out the ticking and count to sixty.

15,16,17,18,19,20…

25,26,27,28,29,30-

The clock changes. It's moving twice as quickly than normal. So, the only reason why the clock is here is to make me anxious. Fantastic.

I sit there for a while, just pondering. Eventually the ticking starts getting to me and I start pacing. How much longer are they gonna take!?

I jump when I hear the door open and close, I turn to see...Inoichi.

"Inoichi-san," I greet and thank GOD that it isn't Ibiki. The man nods.

"Please take a seat," I comply.

Inoichi sits across from me, he stares at me intently. "Umm, am I going to be able to continue participating in the chunin exams?" I ask awkwardly.

"Depends on how well our talk goes," the man takes out a clipboard along with a pen.

"Oh…"

"Now Erin, I need you to tell me exactly what happened and how you injured him." Oh…

"He attempted a mind transfer to cheat off of me, but since I had found out from one of my teammates that our tests were different from anyone else I decided to tell him that there wasn't any point in it." Inoichi nods along and hits down a few notes. "But he said that he may as well force me to quit the chunin exams, a fight happened, I basically lost. But then something strange happened…" Inoichi leans forward.

"It was like, I was hit backwards but I hit a wall. It was like energy came off of the wall and I don't completely remember but I know that I kicked him out." Inoichi places a hand on his chin thoughtfully.

"Ibiki said that you had to go to the bathroom after he saw you passed out do a couple of minutes. What happened then?" I stiffen, how do I say this without saying anything about ROOT?

"My chakra went out of control, luckily the shinobi who brought me to the bathroom had pills." Inoichi frowns at my vague response. "I also threw up a couple of times."

Inoichi jots down more notes, "describe how your chakra "went out of control", also did you find that it affected you emotionally?"

"When I say out of control I mean it didn't follow my commands. The way that my chakra usually works is, I draw it out of my necklace, I use it for a task, then I direct it back to my necklace." My hand subconsciously wraps around my pendant. "This time more and more chakra was flowing into my body and I couldn't stop it. Meanwhile it made me more and more irritated and aggressive."

Inoichi frowns skeptically, he puts down more notes, "is this the first time that this has happened?" I nod, "Erin, where you come from, Canada. Was it a shinobi village?"

I almost want to laugh, "no. We didn't have any shinobi. In fact, most people didn't know what a shinobi was." Inoichi looks even more confused.

"How were you treated as a child?" I stare. What? Why would he want to know that?

"-I'm sorry Erin. You know, for bringing the topic up but I need to know." I look down, what donI say.

"Not very well." I say quietly.

"Pardon?"

"I wasn't treated very well as a child."

"By who? And do you know why?"

Oh I know. They reminded me every single day for almost my entire life. "My parents and the other family members that I knew. Apparently I ruined my parent's financial stability and I was just a waste of space." I feel my voice start to shake, "even though it was their fault that they had another kid." I take a deep breath.

Inoichi's voice is completely calm, "you had a sibling?"

I keep my eyes fixed onto the ground. "Yeah. He was my older brother. He was nice to me and I think that he tried his best to play both parental rolls. In the end he called some people and we were taken out of our home." I can't help but smile faintly at the next thought. "And both of my parents were charged and both of them had to go to jail for two years. But I think that it should have been longer." I frown at the end part, if it were up to me they would have had life sentences.

"Erin, I'm so sorry." I look up for a second.

"What else do you want to know?" I smother my emotions and force myself to focus on what's happening now.

Inoichi looks shocked for a second but gains his composure. "I don't need to know much more. But Erin, have you ever heard of a jinchuriki?" Jinchuriki? I turn the word over in my head, nope. I shake my head.

"A jinchuriki is a person who carries something called a tailed beast inside of them.-"

"So do you mean like Naruto?" I blert against my will, "-I can sense the chakra!" I make an excuse as quickly as possible and luckily Inoichi accepts the excuse.

"Yes. Like Naruto. Erin, based on your symptoms there is a possibility that your necklace contains something comparable to a tailed beast." I gape in shock, comparable to a tailed beast!? "Or, based on the trauma that I have heard about your past, your chakra may have formed...something. Something where you can put your pain and suffering." I continue to stare in shock.

"It has happened before. The mind can do it as a defence mechanism. But the chakra that this is directed towards can become very unstable and dangerous. I've seen where somebody's chakra has become a monster and eaten away at her consciousness." I close my eyes to process what's happening. Based on what he's said so far I have a monster in my necklace or I am creating a monster in my necklace. "Erin, we barely know anything about this now but please, don't use the power of whatever it is." I nod numbly.

"You're free to go now. Good luck on the second chunin exam." Inoichi opens the door for me and I quickly leave the building.

~0~

Making my way home was like a blur, when I start to unlock my door I jump in surprise when the apartment next door opens. "Erin! You're alright!" Naruto jumps out with a cry.

It seems like my mind is processing things a few seconds later than they actually happen.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I answer tiredly.

"Where were you!?"

"I'd rather not talk about it," honestly I'm exhausted right now. And I have quite a lot on my mind.

"Oh...ok! Do ya wanna go out for ramen? I have coupons! Ya know!" I get ready to decline but then I remember-I don't have training tonight.

"Sure." The boy was clearly waiting to be rejected.

"Ok...wait!" His face lights up, "let's go then! Ya know!" He pumps a fist into the air and marches down the hall. I can't help but smile a little as I follow.

~0~

A/N: OHHH WHAT'S IN ERIN'S NECKLACE WHO KNOWS!?

Somehow I managed to pack three chapters into one day of the chunin exams.


	42. Chapter 41

A/N: Changing jutsu from "release" to "style" because of reasons.

Also, to OnepieceZoroOc:

At the moment it is kinda difficult to add hints into the story as to who Erin will end up being together with so I'll list some very vague hints.

-Erin has not met them yet.

-It is a male.

-Erin and him have completely different personalities(e.g: Erin is pretty quiet and reserved while he is loud and outgoing)

-Erin and him have something in common when it comes to their fighting styles.

-In the anime he doesn't show up until shippuden.

If ya want more hints as to who it's going to be PM me! I'll also try to add just a couple of hints in this chapter.

Chapter 41:

"Alright maggots! Here are the rules for the second part of the chunin exams!" Out of all of the teams here I can't help but notice that ours has the most colourful hair. Naruto's yellow, Sakura's pink, my red...Sasuke's can be classified as black but it has a bluish hint to it. I carefully compare it again, only half of my attention on the rules.

I feel an elbow dig into my side and I turn my attention back to what Anko was saying. Dead silence.

"What is it?" I mutter to Sakura who immediately facepalms.

"As I was saying, we just so happen to have the pleasure of having a team of four!" Uh oh, "but unfortunately a four man team is against the rules!"

I feel Sakura grab the sleeve of my trench coat. "But, luckily we can make a little exception." She's pointing right at us, gee thanks for putting the spotlight on us Anko. "One of you has to go through the second exam...alone!" Oh that sounds fantastic.

People around us start muttering. Anko painted a target on our backs, now we're definitely in trouble.

"The person who goes alone is your choice!" More muttering is heard, well now what!? Which of us is going alone? Not Sakura, she's the weakest of all of us. Not Naruto, he isn't very good at making mature decisions. Not Sasuke, Orochimaru's after him. That leaves me...but I want to be there to try to defend Sasuke from Orochimaru.

"Whatever! Give me and my team any challenge! Forest of Death-pff, sounds like something to scare little kids!" I swear that someday Naruto's going to get all of us killed. Even now, Anko has managed to graze his cheek with a kunai and is now standing right behind him.

"Is that a challenge, maggot?" Her voice is almost a whisper. Naruto stiffens and looks too scared to turn around or even move.

"You dropped your kunai." I gape in shock and can't help but jump backwards when another shinobi appears behind Anko. I'm amazed, there was no warning, not even the smallest change in chakra. He-or she just appeared.

Man I hope that that isn't Orochimaru…

His or her tongue slides back into it's mouth when Anko takes the kunai. I feel goosebumps rising on my arms, "thank you, Kusa Shinobi!" Anko says cheerfully.

It nods and turns around to return to its teammates. I stiffen when it glances back at me...and smirks.

It is him, it's Orochimaru.

For a moment I feel like screaming and exposing him right this second. I could do it now and it would all be over. I glance around, there are no jonin other than Anko. I close my eyes and think carefully.

I scream that the Hidden Grass shinobi is Orochimaru, people will only have seconds to react. I don't know what Orochimaru will do, he could just run away, he could decide to get violent. And if he gets violent we're in trouble, I highly doubt that anybody here would stand a chance against him. Maybe if every single person ganged up on him we would stand a chance. But what's the likelihood of the genin from other villages helping? Those from Sunagakure are on his side.

I open my eyes and try to breath deeply, it looks like I have to wait it out for now. "Everyone! I want you to sign these sheets, in case anything happens. Just take a couple of minutes to read the wavers over."

Soon we're all separated into our squads to read through the waiver. "Guys, I'll go alone."

"What!? No Sakura-chan!" Naruto immediately objects, Sasuke doesn't say a word.

"Naruto's right, you shouldn't be the one to go alone." I say.

"Come on you guys! You all know that I'm the one who's holding this team back! Let me go!" I immediately shake shake my head. "Well, who else is gonna go!? Sasuke-kun and you deserve to pass, and Naruto's probably too dumb to do it!" I let out a sigh.

"Sakura-chan, do you mean that I don't deserve to pass!?" Naruto asks gingerly and is answered by being hit over the head.

"Who said that the one who goes alone fails the exam?" I ask calmly.

"Well…" Sakura mutters, "wait, what are you saying!?" Oh shit, what AM I saying!?

"Maybe-since I'm one of the strongest in our team-I guess...I could...go…" Saying it feels like pulling teeth out.

"...are ya sure, Erin?" Asks Naruto. Huh, it's funny because he told Sakura no but just questions my motives.

I gulp and nod, what have I gotten myself into?

Ok...I'm going alone. There is a very high chance that I won't make it to the finish of this exam. But I sure as hell will try.

Man, I'm gonna use my ROOT training quite a lot. Hmm, thinking of the foundation...if I pass this exam I'll get a lot of brownie points from Danzo, but if I fail everyone in the foundation will think that I'm an idiot for going alone. No pressure.

But, because of my training I must be ahead of a lot of people here. There are just a few that I need to avoid.

We sign the waivers before handing them back to the chunin. My team walks into the small booth where we get our scroll.

I look down at mine, heaven. Suddenly an idea comes to my mind that might just protect Sasuke from Orochimaru.

"Guys, take my scroll."

"What!?" Naruto shouts, good thing we're still in the booth.

"Well, your scroll is earth, and mine's heaven. So you guys can finish this test faster if you take my scroll and head straight for the finish."

"We know that, Erin. But why do you want to give up all of your chances to become a chunin!?" Sakura interjects.

I think through my answer carefully, "because I want to see you guys become chunin." They stare in shock. "Naruto, I have an idea. Make two shadow clones." He wordlessly complies.

"Now one of you turn into Sasuke." One of the shadow clones nods and soon I'm looking at two Naruto's and two Sasuke's.

"Now nobody will know who is the one who's going alone." The real Sasuke thinks out loud, I nod.

We make sure that it's allowed before switching the scrolls around. All of us leave the tent and I immediately notice most of the people watching us intently. A lot of them frown in confusion for a second before exchanging frustrated looks.

Ha, they were looking for the easy targets. But they'll have to work harder than that.

We're separated into two groups, and of course I'm separated from my team. "Guys, don't forget. As soon as the exam starts, get to the finish as quickly as possible. Don't let anything distract you, no matter what happens." I mutter before heading in the other direction. They nod.

People are still watching me and the clones and muttering. Even if they don't know if I'm alone or not. I'm a rookie, no matter what I think that I'm going to be targeted.

For the next day's I'm going to continue my regular two four hour naps rather than one eight hour sleep. Then in the time that I usually train I'm going to take people's scrolls while they're asleep.

"You, stop here." I nod and step in front of the large metal gates, more muttering. The clones flank my sides.

The group leaves us and now we're just sitting in silence, along with a chunin who's supposed to unlock the gate for us when the exam starts. He constantly checks his watch but doesn't say a word.

"How long will you last?" I mutter to the Naruto clone.

"I don't know, I haven't tested it out, ya know." He whispers back, I let out a sigh. Typical behaviour from Naruto.

After about a half hour the chunin finally opens the gate. "The exam has started." I hesitate, before stepping into the dark forest, the clones flank me.

I hear a slam and when I turn around the gates are locked and the chunin is gone. Nerves flare up in my stomach as I launch into the trees.

~0~

"Alright guys! We've got the one who's all alone!" A grown man yells obnoxiously once he has taken out the Naruto clone. I glance at the Sasuke clone, after he's out I'm officially alone.

I dodge kunai with ease, quickly retaliating with explosives, two people are sent flying. "Is this really the best that they can do?" I mutter half to myself as beautiful blue flames burst from more explosives, followed by screaming. The Sasuke clone shrugs, I let out a small sigh before jumping onto a high tree branch. "If you give us your scroll I'll stop." I yell so I can be heard.

"No way we're losing to a brat like you!" The ringleader screams at the top of his lungs. I cover my ears at grimace, what a pain.

I gasp in shock when hands emerge from the tree branch that I'm standing on. "Great job, Akio! Now's our chance!" Kunai are launched at me from below. On instinct I attempt to jump away but the hands that are now gripping my ankles tighten.

Oh no…

I cross my arms over my chest and my hands over my face in preparation for impact. But, it never comes.

I peak from between my fingers to see the Sasuke clone attacking our assailants. More to the right I see kunai scattered across the ground. I smirk, "Lightning Style: Lightning Rod!" I direct the electricity to my feet after I finish with the hand seals. I launch into the air once the man below me lets go. That jutsu is brought to you by ROOT training, it's basically the same thing as Electrifying Spark but now I can direct it to any part of my body.

I land on the ground but immediately have to block an attack from the third member of their team. "Tch," I step to the side to avoid a punch. As he stumbles past I sidestep forward and use the power of my body to elbow him hard in the ribs. He immediately shouts in pain and whips around.

This is way too easy, before he can make another move I launch upwards. My right leg strikes him in the stomach before my left hits his chin. The man crumples to the ground, clutching his head. J notice that there's blood trickling from his mouth and can't help but hope that he just bit his tongue. But it still doesn't stop me from kneeling down and grabbing him by his hair.

I drag his head up and hold a kunai to his throat. "Give us the scroll or I'll kill him!" I shout, both of his team members freeze and stare at me. I force a confident smirk onto my face, of course I'm not going to kill him. This exam is definitely not worth killing somebody over.

"Damnit…" The leader mutters before digging into his bag and handing the Sasuke clone a scroll. My smirk widens and I let go of the man, his face collides with the ground.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you, gentlemen!" I wave as I start to walk away.

"Bitch…" One of them mutters but I make the decision to ignore them.

Once we've gotten a comfortable distance away I let out a sigh. "One earth scroll down, one heaven scroll to go." I glance at the clone beside me.

"Actually, all that we have to do now is meet with the others." I stare in shock as he takes out a heaven scroll.

"Wait…" I squint in confusion, "Sasuke!? What are you doing here!?" I snap.

"Don't ask me. The moron told me to take the heaven scroll and go with you." I clutch my head, nonononono. This is NOT going to work. My team decided to go against the rules even though I volunteered to go alone. And now I have Sasuke.

The one who Orochimaru's after, I think that he's also after me. Wow this might just work out perfectly in the snake's favour.

"We need to hurry!" Panic fills my voice at the thought of being confronted by the man. "Where are we supposed to meet the others!?"

"Follow me." We launch into the trees, continuing at high speed. "Why do we need to hurry?"

I think carefully before answering, "let's just say that there are a couple of people that we definitely don't want to run into." Technically I'm not lying.

"How do you know?" Ha, I already had this answer prepared for a time just like this.

"You'd be surprised at how much you can learn about someone just by paying attention to their chakra." Half-truth, the beauty of it. But Sasuke is still dissatisfied, I can tell. "Think about it, you're an Uchiha. You've basically got a target painted on your back." The boy stiffens and sends me a glare. I shrug it off, I was just stating the facts. Wait actually that wasn't ok to mention.

"Sorry that I mentioned your clan." I mutter, he looks confused for a second but quickly looks away.

"Whatever-"

"Sasuke watch out!" I yell and practically throw him out of the way of an enormous surge of chakra heading our way.

While I'm still in midair I feel myself being thrown backwards by a powerful wind. I slam against a tree and black out for less than a second. I hit the ground.

I lay there on the ground, winded, before I choke and greedily suck air into my lungs. My entire body hurts but I force myself to move. I drag myself up using the tree.

I move my weight to my legs and scream in pain when my right leg throbs.

I drop to my knees and breath hard, oh god what's wrong with my leg? It aches and feels hot, but...my toes are starting to go numb.

"Erin! Are you alright!?" Sasuke drops down beside me.

"Sasuke-" Tears force their way down my cheeks even though I'm not emotionally reacting to the pain. I reach down and clutch my foot. I look up a my eyes widen, "Sasuke get away-"

He looks up as well, stalking towards us is the Kusa shinobi. Or non other than Orochimaru. "Sasuke run!" I force out, the boy stares at our attacker, then at me. He had better not.

He grabs my arm and puts his shoulder under me. He is.

"What are you doing you idiot!? I'm going to slow you down!" I snarl but I let out a gasp when my leg throbs.

"Shut up!" We launch into the trees, I try to help a little bit with my left leg.

"Fleeing already? I would have expected more of a fight from such formidable prey." It sounds almost as if he's right behind us. I glance back to see that he's rapidly gaining.

I stiffen when I see hand seals, "Sasuke! Drop me!"

"What!?"

"I have an idea just let go!" I snap, luckily he obeys and I'm soon free falling. In mid air I twist around to get a clear view of my opponent. We make direct eye contact as he finishes his hand seals, I narrow my eyes in a challenge. "Fire Style: Searing Embers!" I shout before breathing in and exhaling when I see the wind style jutsu heading my way.

I can't help but smirk when the fire hits the gust of wind and quickly spreads, all of the way back to Orochimaru. I watch as he is engulfed by the flames but I don't hear any sounds of agony like somebody would expect.

That's the moment when I remember that I'm into the middle of a free fall.

I flood chakra into my right leg to insure that it will actually follow my commands before pulling out a seal. I stick it to the palm of my right hand and aim. I choose a tree and flood chakra into the seal. There's a moment, before a kunai with Ninja wire attached shoots out of the seal. The kunai digs into the wood of the tree and I'm pulled towards it. When I know that I'm out of Orochimaru's line of vision I create a clone.

I stop the real me at the tree but my clone continues. I see myself slam into a tree before falling to the ground. Perfect, if Orochimaru was watching there's a small chance that he thinks that I'm out of the fight.

I track Sasuke and Orochimaru with my sensing, they've stopped running. I twist and plant my feet onto the surface of the tree, my leg screams in pain but I ignore it.

I launch, immediately going into full speed. My leg is still feeling like the worst thing that's ever happened, what the hell happened when I hit that tree for it to hurt more than my rib cage!?

I close my eyes to think for a moment, I must have landed on it.

As I get closer to the two I devise a plan on what I'll do next. I clap my hands into a focusing seal and allow my chakra to flood into my hands. In this fight every attack that I use must be used with the intent to kill. I can't even hesitate for a second.

I make an effort to imagine that I'm in ROOT training, there I have to focus on every single detail. And never hold back or feel remorse for hurting somebody, or else you'll get hurt, either physically or mentally.

I spot Orochimaru's back, I focus even more chakra. "Kai!" I fly through the air and aim my fist at the back of his head. I sense a surprised flare in his chakra and can't help but smirk.

He tries to step to the side but I twist in midair and manage to hit him in the shoulder. I allow my chakra to seep through before switching with a leaf that just so happened to be flying by. "Sasuke!" I run to the boy, "Sasuke get up!" I snap when he doesn't respond.

He looks at me as if he didn't notice the fact that I just managed to hit Orochimaru. Suddenly his eyes widen, "behind you." His voice is no more than a whisper.

I immediately spin, flooding chakra throughout my body in preparation. But what happens is not what I was expecting. Something wraps around my neck and I'm lifted off of the ground. On instinct I start to claw at it and quickly recognize that it's a snake.

Panic fills me, I can't breath. Icantbreathicantbreathicantbreath! I close my eyes for just a second.

'Hands clasp over my throat, I struggle and try to scream. I can faintly hear my older brother yelling in the background. I struggle even harder but it's pointless. My vision goes black.'

I open my eyes wide and try to scream but no sound comes out. How do I get the snake off!? How do I get IT OFF OF ME!?

I focus my chakra onto my hands but somehow it senses it and tightens. I'm sure that somebody's speaking but all that I can hear is white noise and my own mind panicking.

The edges of my visions are going black, I try to call out for Sasuke but no sound. Finally the entire world goes black.

~0~

I wake up and choke desperately for air, I open my eyes to see my surroundings dimly lit. But, I know this place. I was here only yesterday.

I stand and look around, the usual blackness surrounds me. An idea suddenly strikes me, what if I get that chakra surge from before and use it to fight Orochimaru?

But a grand total of two people told me that it's a terrible idea to use that power. But they don't know what's going to happen in the future, if I don't help Sasuke will definitely end up getting the curse mark.

But I feel myself shudder at the memory of the feeling that the chakra gave me.

But then this time I'll have something to direct the raw power and rage towards.

The part of me that was against it gives in and I move forward in search of the wall from before. Suddenly I feel an energy, I move and it gets stronger, I turn and it gets weaker.

I follow it, it feels almost like a voice that's calling out to me. It doesn't take me very long to find the wall. By then I can hear an intense ringing in my ears, I hesitate. I shake my head and reach out and touch it.

Chakra immediately seeps into my arm, and soon my entire body.

~0~

My eyes fly open and I'm up in second. Much to my irritation both Sasuke and Orochimaru are missing from the clearing. Chakra floods through me and it's actually making it difficult to focus on finding their chakra signatures.

But I manage to hear some crashing in the distance so I head that way. I'm going twice as fast as before, with all of this power, I'm going to try to make Orochimaru's life living hell.

I immediately recognize an enormous snake, where is Sasuke? Who cares, I need to waste my chakra on something.

In a second chakra surrounds my hands, the next tree branch that I launch off of snaps in half.

The snake turns, hisses, and lunges toward me with its mouth wide open. Oh, it's going to eat me. Well, I'm going to make it regret that decision.

I continue in my path, completely unfazed. For a second darkness surrounds me as it's jaws close, but I slam into whatever must be the back of its throats and burst back into the light. For a second I glance down at myself and see a red liquid soaking through my clothes.

My fury is steadily rising, I want to kill. I need to break somethings body.

"Sasuke!" The boy's passed out, I can tell. I kneel down beside him, oh no. I'm too late.

There are two painful looking bite marks on his shoulder, and right beside is a seal. I snarl and punch the branch that I'm standing on. The impact leaves a hole in the bark.

I stand and look around, a small wave of panic passes through me. If Orochimaru's already gone I have nothing to waste my chakra on. What a selfish piece of shit, not staying so I can tear him apart.

"I wasn't expecting you to get back up, Erin-kun. It's very impressive." I smirk and turn to see Orochimaru. He isn't disguised anymore. He opens his mouth to say more but I'm not that stupid, the thing that you want to do the least is let a fight drag out. Especially if you want to win.

I launch at him at lightning speed, as I pass by I reach out and clothesline him. Fresh blood covers my arm.

I stop and turn to see my work. There's an enormous gash in his chest, my smirk widens. I think I killed him.

Suddenly it's like his entire body melts and the only thing that's left is a puddle of mud. A clone.

I crouch down onto all fours and flick my gaze around. I lick my lips, I taste blood.

There!

From all fours I launch again, he barely manages to dodge. "What's wrong!? I thought that you were confident in your abilities!" I grin and take a swing at him.

"Ninja Art: Striking Twin Shadow Snakes!" Two snakes wrap around my arm but they immediately shrivel because of my chakra.

"Kai!" I've got him this time, I'm sure of it. By the end of this he'll be dead-!

Wait, WHAT AM I DOING!? I stop my hand right in front of his face.

I'm dealing with a threat of course!

I step back and clutch my head, nononono...what's wrong with me? What am I thinking?

Come on! This should be easy, compared to me he's nothing.

That is incredibly wrong, I'm going to take Sasuke and run!

No, I'm going to take down Orochimaru.

My chakra flares dangerously, now I realize something. I was never the one who was fighting.

~0~

A/N: OOOHHHHHHHH!

I planned on adding hints in this chapter but apparently not, oops.


	43. Chapter 42

Chapter 42:

Orochimaru's POV:

Orochimaru could tell that something was wrong the second that Erin appeared from the trees. She was completely covered in fresh blood, that made him assume that she had already taken care of the snake that he had summoned.

At the current moment, the girl snarled and clutched her head. Throughout the fight, her mental state had been getting worse and worse.

Suddenly she looked with her silver reptilian eyes and smirked. Orochimaru could tell that he was not fighting with Latté Erin anymore, he was fighting some sort of a monster.

"You," her voice sounded rough. "You're dead!" Her eyes widened for a second before she launched forward again. Orochimaru dodged and watched as the girl's arm drove deep into a tree. He looked and saw the leaves from above grey and begin to break off of their branches.

He thought carefully, it appeared as if her chakra would kill or tear apart anything that was organic. She ripped her arm out of the trunk and roared at nothing in particular.

Orochimaru frowned, she had lost almost all of her sanity and was basically just focussed on either killing him or destroying things. He dodged again and thought through his next course of action.

Before that moment he had been considering giving her a curse mark, but now he knew that she truly didn't have any of her own chakra. The way that curse marks work is that it stays in one place because of the person's natural chakra holding it back. If he were to try that on Erin it would most likely completely take over her body and she would die.

Another choice would be to kidnap her and take her to a lab on this very day, but he didn't have any areas prepared to control this much chakra.

He let out a small sigh, the best thing to do was to let her get away. But at least he could perform some small tests before he left her alone.

He flared his chakra in a pattern as a signal to his companions. They should be there soon.

Erin came at him again, this time he jumped down to the ground. In seconds she landed on all fours in front of him, he glanced down at her hands, they were completely surrounded by chakra. He watched as every green thing that the chakra touched died.

Orochimaru went through hand seals and sent a weak wind jutsu toward her. She immediately reacted with a single tiger hand seal before blasting flames back at him. The wind strengthened the flames. Amazing, what exactly was he fighting?

"Orochimaru-sama!" His two comrades landed at his sides.

"We need to get her under control." He said, "don't let her touch you or elder you will die."

"Get me under control!?" Whatever was controlling her burst into laughter, "the last time somebody in their right mind tried that, I ate them!" She bared her teeth, was it just Orochimaru or did they look sharper.

She pauses and grins, "actually, I might not even have to try very hard!" She reaches her hand out and flexes. Orochimaru's right shoulder suddenly explodes in pain. He clutches it, dammit he thought that he had gotten rid of all of the chakra that the girl had forced in when she first attacked.

"Take her down, now!" He ordered and the two immediately shot forward.

"Earth Style: Stone Prison!" In seconds Erin disappears and the only thing that you can see looks like a boulder. "Hurry! This won't hold her for long!" The man snaps at his partner as he makes hand seals.

"I'm sorry but this takes some time before it's ready!" He snaps back and the ground begins to glow. There was a moment of dead silence, before all of the stone crumbled.

Erin stood among the rubble, electricity still sending sparks throughout her entire body.

She glanced around for a moment, before zeroing in on Orochimaru. She went back into all fours before running at him.

"Oh no you don't!" She was intercepted by the earth style user, now he had his arms cover in stone. She rounded on him and attempted to smash his face. He managed to stop her arm just in time but he fell backwards.

They wrestled on the ground, the man desperately trying to stay alive while Erin was trying to kill.

"I'm ready!" The man's partner finally yelled, Erin froze, with the man pinned to the ground despite his enormous size. Her tongue flicked in and out similar as to how a snake does, before she launched at him. Leaving the man that she had been fighting before coughing up blood and choking for air, she had definitely broken the man's ribs.

Now the man who she had turned against ran for his life. Orochimaru thought that it may be the time that he stepped in.

He but his thumb and rolled up his sleeve, "summoning jutsu!" He kneeled down and muttered instructions to the large snake that he had summoned, it nodded in understanding.

Erin had changed her course back to Orochimaru, the snake reared up and hissed at her.

She did not change her target, and when she got close enough the snake lunged for her.

The girl smirked and reached out to hit it with her claw-like chakra but soon her eyes widened in surprise. The snake swerved to the left and grabbed her leg before throwing her.

She twisted in midair and landed on her hands and feet, she smirks and prepares to jump again. But as she moves chains shoot out of the ground and wrap around her waist.

"W-What!?" She snarls angrily as she's dragged backwards and closer to the ground.

"With that seal you'll be trapped until your chakra dies down, the harder you fight the tighter it gets." The man who set up the seal stated as he landed in front of her.

"Damn you!" She snaps and tries to lunge for him but ends up being dragged lower. "I'll-I'll kill all of you!" She roars and the trees shake and the ground cracks beneath her.

"Good luck." The man who was on the ground before stood and stood close in front of her. She spat at him. "Why you-"

"It's time that we go." Orochimaru stated, his henchmen gave the girl one last look before following him, leaving the girl screaming and cursing behind them.

~0~

Erin's POV:

"Erin!" I hear a faint voice. I groan.

"Erin!"

"I think she's waking up!"

I feel myself being shaken lightly, "Erin wake up!" I crack open my eyes and see three figures leaning over me. I cough, "you're alright! Thank kami!" I squint and recognize Suigetsu and his team.

I cough again and try to sit up but my entire body screams. "Suigetsu," I manage to choke out, my voice is rough and painful to use. "What happened?"

"That's what we're wondering! We heard a lot of crashing and roaring coming from over here, we waited until it died down to come and check it out. And when we did, you and your teammate were just lying around!"

"Sasuke?" I force myself to sit up, I look around for a second before trying to get up. My right foot does not respond so I settle for crawling.

"He's still passed out." Haku states when I reach him. Sasuke's even more pale than usual and he has an expression of pain, this is bad. This is very bad.

I failed to protect him.

I shouldn't have used the surge of chakra either, I don't even know what happened after I realized that I wasn't the one who was in control.

I jump when somebody sits beside me, "here." I look down at a water bottle and look up to see Haku. He holds a couple of food pills. I take them and accept the water bottle.

Before I take them I frown in disgust because I know exactly how bad the pills are going to taste, I've had them before. I pop them into my mouth and try to swallow them as quickly as humanly possible. "Thank you." I mutter as I give the water bottle back.

Haku just smiles and puts it back in his bag.

I glance at my other surroundings, Suigetsu and his teammate are talking. I look a little hit to their left, there are claw marks that reach deep into the ground along with a large crack. I hope that that wasn't me.

"You must really care about your teammate to have fought as hard as you did."

"Hmm?" I send Haku a confused look.

"You have bruises all over your face and your leg's broken. You must have fought pretty hard."

"There are…?" I mutter half to myself and lightly touch my face, I wince. "It was a life or death situation." I say, "another of us had much of a choice." Wrong. I could have ran but there was no way that I was just going to abandon Sasuke. But I still failed anyways.

"Sure." Haku frowns for a moment, "hey, are you going to be able to stay in the chunin exams with your broken leg?"

Anxiety immediately floods into my chest, "that is a fantastic question. I have no idea." I stiffen when I imagine Danzo's and my taijutsu instructors irritated stares. If I can't I don't know how much trouble I'll be in…

"Honestly if I were in your place I would quit and get some treatment." Haku says honestly. Yeah, that's great and all but he has no idea on what's at stake for me in this situation. Very first ROOT test, had to drop out, that WILL NOT look good for me.

"No. I think that I'll at least try." I say and force chakra into my my foot and stand.

"You know what, Erin? I think that we should help you!" Suigetsu says as he steps to my side, "just for the rest of the second exam!"

"Are you three sure?" I ask but I'm actually really thankful, I don't think that I could do it alone. Especially with Sasuke unconscious.

"Yeah!" Haku was already lifting Sasuke onto his shoulder, damn he's strong. I glance at the blue haired boy who gives me the smallest smile accompanied with a nod.

"It's settled then, let's go!" Suigetsu orders before jumping high into the trees. We all follow.

~0~

A/N: A bit of a short chapter but whatever.


	44. Chapter 43

Chapter 43:

"Sasuke-kun isn't doing so well…" Haku states as we sit around the fire.

"I know...but I don't know what we can do." I answer quietly before taking a large bite out of a fish skewer. Sasuke's even more pale than before, and to add to that I can sense his natural chakra becoming weaker.

"Whatever, you should just meet with your teammates to trade him off, then head for the finish." Suigetsu shrugs and leans back.

"I know. The only problem is that Sasuke was leading me to where we were supposed to meet up. So to find them I just have to make an educated guess." I lean back as well, I can remember the direction that we were heading and I can guess that it'll be a giant tree since they made these plans before we separated. It would have to be big enough that you could spot it for outside of the forest.

"We could just stick with you until we find your team." Haku says, I notice how he says "we".

"Sure, thanks. By the way, I can keep watch for tonight from 12:00am to 4:00am." I suggest, this should work for me because it's keeping my usual sleep schedule.

"Sure, Chojuro, you keep watch first." So that's his name. I guess that I need to make an actual effort to remember his name now.

"O-Ok…"

"Anyways, we should probably get some sleep. By the way, I'll keep watch after you, Erin." Haku says and I nod.

I take out a seal and flow chakra into it, I set it's time and stick it to my arm. At twelve it should send a flare of chakra into my arm and it will wake me up, I nice trick that I learned from Boar.

"Goodnight!"

~0~

My entire body jumps when I feel chakra enter my system, my eyes fly open. I pull off my tag and sit up, one downside to the seal is that it isn't a very pleasant wake up call.

Chojuro's poking at the fire with a stick, he looks tired. "I'm awake, now you can sleep." I state and I swear that he jumps at least a foot into the air. I see his cheeks turn red from embarrassment as he nods.

"Every so often I've been putting a wet cloth on Sasuke-kun's forehead to help out with his fever…" He says quietly. Hey, that's the first time that I've heard him say a full sentence! I glance over at Sasuke, he isn't looking very good…

"Thanks, I'll keep doing that." Chojuro gives me the smallest smile before laying down and closing his eyes. It doesn't take very long for his chakra to calm as he falls asleep.

Once I'm sure that he's asleep I creep over to Sasuke. I have to flood chakra into my foot to even get it to move, even now I can't feel it at all. I ignore my foot and look down at Sasuke, I had no idea that he could actually get more pale than before.

I pause for a second before lifting the cloth from his forehead and checking his temperature. Burning hot. I press two fingers onto his throat to feel his pulse, it's weak.

Sasuke, I'm so, so sorry. If I had handled things differently there's a chance that you wouldn't be going through this right now, I can only guess how terrible it feels. And I completely lost control over myself to top that off, I could have hurt or even killed you without realizing what I was doing.

I let out a sigh when I realize that the cloth in my hand isn't cold anymore. I stand and head in the direction of the stream, it's almost pitch black since the trees are so large that they completely block the sky. I feel my nerves starting to rise and I reach into my bag and take out a seal. I stick it to my arm and flow some chakra into it, a low glow emanates from it. Thank god for Boar and his wise teachings, now I can actually see.

I follow the sound of the small stream, when I reach it I kneel down and soak the cloth. After that I fill my water bottle. Suddenly I freeze.

That presence…

"It's you," I mutter and turn around to see glowing yellow eyes accompanied with a huge toothy grin shining from atop a tree branch.

""It's you" could mean quite a lot of people but I suppose that you aren't wrong. It is me." He practically floats down to the ground in front of me, he takes a step forward. "I have a proposition for you."

"Stay back!" I snap at him and lift a kunai threateningly, "-and I'm not interested in anything that you have to offer." No matter what it is, I am not going to agree. I can sense all of the bad vibes from this guy.

He stops but continues speaking as if I didn't already say no. "I need your necklace." My necklace? I frown.

"For what?" I ask and subconsciously grab my scale shaped pendant with my free hand. Is it just me or is it vibrating a little bit in my grasp?

"You don't need to know." Well it's my pendant and you're the one who wants it so whatever.

"Pff, you aren't getting it. Now go away." I say and drop my pendant to wave him off.

"But you haven't even heard what's in it for you, I could make you rich, I could make sure that you don't die, I could help you find a way home. We could make good partners, you and I." I stiffen when he mentions finding a way home, could he actually? No. Even if I wanted to I couldn't go through with this agreement, I can't take it off. Not without probably decapitating myself. "All that it costs is a silly little necklace. So what do you think?" He reaches a dark hand out and I immediately take a step back.

I think for a moment before giving him a defiant glare. "Over my dead body." I hiss at him, I see his eyes narrow.

"You clueless little brat, you have no idea the power that your handling." He snarls and begins to sink into the ground. "I suppose that at some point you will realize the terror that's in that necklace. Have it your way, if you say "over my dead body" then so be it. I will just wait patiently for you to die. I have waited thousands of years, I can spare just a few moments." I'm starting to wonder if his words are even aimed at me anymore by the time that his voice fades away.

Once I'm sure that he's gone I glance around.

And I run.

I swear that it takes me less than a minute to reach the edge of our camp and I stop. I creep into the small clearing to make sure that I don't wake anybody up. I still feel my heart racing as I sit down after putting the cold cloth on his head.

He'd better enjoy it while it lasts because I'm not going to go back to that stream. I'm not going to leave our campsite for the rest of the night if I can help it.

'My god, I really hope that that wasn't a death threat and that he will actually wait patiently for me to die. But I know that he can manipulate my life, so he could probably speed up the process of me dying…

Goddamnit, I bring my knees to my chest and sit like that.

I don't know how long I sit like that, but I only move when I sense three chakra signatures coming in our direction. I look around, the skies just starting to give off a faint light.

"Guys," I hiss and immediately see Haku's eyes open, Suigetsu's snoring stops, and Chojuro sits up. "Somebody's coming." Everyone's up in seconds and putting on their gear I join them but can't help but wince at my bad leg.

"How far?"

"About thirty metres." I answer, "and none of them seem injured, they probably haven't fought anybody using chakra yet." I think out loud.

"Well, we may as well just take 'em on, that would mean less competition!" Suigetsu flashes a toothy grin.

"Don't be overconfident, you don't know their skill level." Haku looks at me, "can you tell anything like that by sending…?"

I frown as I focus and suddenly I feel my stomach sink. "They're the shinobi from the hidden sound village." I say in disgust.

"You mean that guys that you almost set on fire!?"

"Indeed."

"Why don't we finish the job then? Show them what we're made of!" I think that Suigetsu might want to pick a fight with somebody.

"They're ten metres away now."

"Well, I guess that it's too late to run now, we may as well." This team is pretty confident, though Chojuro hasn't said a word.

"Let's get the first attack in then!" Suigetsu smirks and lifts up his right hand, "Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu!" He moves his fingers into a seal that looks like a gun, and fires.

"Gah!" I hear somebody yell at the top of their lungs as they just appear through the trees. They barely manage to dodge and the bullet of water shoots right through the tree behind them.

"Water Style: Hidden in the Mist Jutsu!" Haku says and a thick mist immediately surrounds us. "Chojuro, Erin, stay back and guard Sasuke!"

"Hn!" The both of us say simultaneously.

Suigetsu and Haku nod at us before disappearing into the mist. I can hear shouting but suddenly I sense Suigetsu's chakra become muffled, "something's wrong with Suigetsu." I say, Chojuro looks at me nervously. "And that means Haku's fighting just three to one, Im going to go and help."

"O-Ok!" I nod at him and launch forward, first I find Suigetsu.

"Suigetsu-holy shit." Suigetsu's melting what?

What?

"Suigetsu!" I kneel down and try to shake him awake but my hands go right through him. I jump away and stare at my soaked hands, what the actual garbage shit is this?

"Oh so you decided to stop hiding behind the boys now, did you?" I whip around to see the girl in the hidden sound team accompanied with the bandage guy.

"Excuse me?" I ask, slightly offended.

"You were trying to use the Kiri-nin as shields because you knew that you weren't strong enough to handle us. Your friend Sasuke's doing that too, by the way where is he?" I narrow my eyes at her, I'll make her regret those words.

"If you think that I'm weak, why don't we go one on one?" I challenge, "all ninjutsu is allowed, including seals and weapons."

"Don't do it, she knows that she can't take both of us at once so she wants us to separate." Bandages says to the girl, I make an effort to have an overconfident smirk on my face. He guessed it right, but I'm not gonna let him know that.

"Whatever, she can't be that tough. She's just a rookie." She looks at me, "sure, but don't cry if you-" My fist hits her stomach and she's sent flying, her back hits a tree trunk with a nasty sounding crack.

For a second I'm scared that I accidentally broke her back but then she stands. She clutches her stomach but straightens up, "you bi-"

I switch with a branch behind her and this time aim for her ribs. She somehow dodges and manages to grab my arm as I pass by, suddenly I feel my mind switch to ROOT mode. I ignore the pain as I twist my arm and grab her own, I throw her over my shoulder and slam her into the ground. I rest my knee on her throat and push down, I begin using lightning style to add to the level of pain.

She stabs a senbon needle into my leg, briefly distracting me. She throws me off and I land on my feet.

We stare each other down as she catches her breath. I only let it last for a few seconds before throwing a kunai at her, she easily steps to the side but little does she know about a nasty surprise attached to it.

"Hn!" She's thrown to the left, I pause for a second to look at my still impaled leg. It didn't hit anything important, I'll be fine.

I grab another kunai and run at the girl, she had only just managed to pick herself up when I reach her and kick her in the chest. I feel her ribs crack in the impact, she chokes for air as she stumbles backwards. I jump forward again and lunge with my kunai, but I stop myself.

She freezes, her eyes filled with fear. My kunai just pierces the skin of her forehead and dark red blood trickles down and drips off of her nose.

Her legs shake for a second and she drops. I silently stand over her as she coughs out blood and struggles to breath.

I finally step back and turn to her teammate to glare a challenge. I breath deeply. Bandages stares at me with his showing eye, clearly weighing out his options. I think through my own options too.

If he decides to attack I'll have to be far more careful because of his ability to manipulate sound waves. And if he decides to back off I'll let him take his teammate and leave without a problem.

"E-Erin!" Both of us turn our heads, I stare in surprise.

"Sakura? Naruto?"

"I will leave you alone. Here's our scroll." Bandages says and doesn't move his eyes off of me as he crouches to place a heaven scroll on the ground. I step out of his way as he walks and picks up his fallen teammate, he disappears into the mist. I can sense that Haku's done on his part as well.

"Erin, where's Sasuke-kun?" I turn back to my teammates, and suddenly I dread them seeing Sasuke's current state.

"I'll lead you to him." Is the only answer that I give, "do you guys still need a heaven scroll." I ask, holding it up. Naruto nods and takes it.

"Erin, your leg!" Sakura cries while pointing at it. Huh, I actually managed to forget about it.

"Ehh, I'll deal with later."

"WHAT!? You can't just IGNORE things like this!" Sakura nags, "as soon as you take us to Sasuke-kun, get that out of your leg!"

"Yes mother." I drone sarcastically. "Wait, SUIGETSU!" I do a full U-turn and run back to where he was. Only to find that the boy's sitting up.

"Suigetsu!" I say slightly more quietly, "but-but you were-what?-you were literally melting!" I try to explain in confusion.

He scratches his head, "yeah that's a thing that happens when I'm knocked out." He groans, "hey, do you have any water?"

"Yeah I do," I take out my water bottle and hand it to him.

"Kami-sama," he praises god and immediately drinks the entire thing. He gives it back.

"Dude." I give him a slightly irritated look.

"What!?"

"Whatever, let's just go." I help him walk, all of the way back to the camp, on the way my teammates join us. We enter the clearing to see Chojuro, Haku, and...Sasuke standing.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cries but she suddenly stops.

"Sasuke?" Naruto asks, I don't say a word.

"Naruto, Sakura, Erin," he acknowledges us. I stare at him, black markings cover his skin in a pattern similar to flames, and one of his eyes has changed from their regular black to yellow. "Where are the rest of our enemies?" I look at the ground beside him, the last of the Oto nins is knocked out, and judging from the angle of his arms, they're broken.

I swallow, a little bit nervous because of Sasuke's current state. "We've already dealt with them." Sasuke stares at me.

"I see," he closes his eyes to focus, he struggles for a second before the markings fade away and when he opens his eyes they look completely normal. We stand in awkward silence for a moment.

"Well, it looks like we can part ways now that you've found your team." Haku says professionally.

"Yeah, we'll see you guys around!" Suigetsu breaks away and waves, I wave back as they turn. "By the way Haku, do you have any extra water?" I overhear Suigetsu ask as they disappear into the mist.

Once their gone I turn back to my team, "alright, all that we need to do is go to the finish."

"Alright! Looks like the second chunin exam wasn't that tough after all, ya know!" Naruto pumps a fist into the air and we launch into the trees.

When we get to a steady speed Sakura falls in beside me, "Erin, what happened to Sasuke-kun?" She whispers nervously.

I shake my head, "I'll tell you after we finish."

~0~

Sasuke hands me the earth scroll that he had been carrying, we're right in front of the finish. We didn't have very much trouble getting here, one group tried to fight us but I exploded them pretty good.

I nod to them and enter through a random door. An empty room surrounds me, "When heaven and earth are opened together, the perilous path will become righteous forever." I read out loud, I take out my heaven and earth scroll. Isn't it great that I already know what to do?

I open the scrolls together and I'm immediately surrounded by smoke. When the smoke clears I immediately recognize the figure in front of me, "Ebisu-sensei!?" I was NOT expecting him.

"Erin," he acknowledges and pushes up his glasses. "It's been quite a while since I last saw you." I nod kind of dumbly.

"I'm assuming that you've gotten stronger?" I nod again. "Definitely strong enough that you thought you wouldn't even need to SEE me again for advice." I feel my ears grow hot with embarrassment, I suck at staying connected to people.

"Haha, yeah…" The man lets out a sigh.

"Anyways, Im supposed to decifer this for you." He gestures to the writing, "heaven, means training your mind and gaining wisdom. Earth, means training your body and gaining physical prowess. Honestly I believe that you are already well balanced in these aspects, especially with my training." Ebisu's just a little bit into himself.

"Now, you have two days to recover, use then wisely." I nod as he disappears in a puff of smoke, a door to my right suddenly opens.

Finally, I hope that there will be a medic-nin in there. I can't even feel from the middle of my right calve down.

~0~

A/N: Hey guys, this is the point where Erin starts to get OP, also pretty soon I'm gonna end this part of my story. In total there are gonna be three parts, the third part's gonna be shippuden. Also, after I'm finished this part of my story, I'm probably gonna take a short break to edit previous chapters and probably republish it. Also change the name a little bit, the first parts gonna be Bladed Wings: Stranger.

*Spoilers* If you wanna know the names of the other two parts here they are:

Part 2: Bladed Wings: Soldier

Part 3: Bladed Wings: Warrior

So what do you guys think of these cool names? Do you like them?

Also to: thanzintay.2000;

Sorry that I forgot to answer your review in the last chapter! Also, I'm sorry but I never planned on giving Erin one of Orochimaru's curse seals, it would make her too OP.


	45. Chapter 44

A/N: I have no excuse for how late this chapter is...other than writer's block and being lazy…so I apologize.

Chapter 44:

A woman with a cat mask makes a small, "tch" sound as she inspects my leg. She told me to withdraw all of my chakra from it, and I'm actually pretty surprised. It isn't limp, it's stiff, but it's incredibly pale…

The woman rolls my ankle but I can see a lot of struggle with her getting it to move. "So you didn't feel that?" She asks in a completely calm voice.

"No," I shake my head.

"Tell me when you can feel it," she starts squeezing my leg, she presses for a few seconds then lets go. She keeps on doing this, each time moving just a little bit up my leg. I don't feel a thing until she reaches the middle of my calf, then I wince. She lets out a sigh and stands up, "if you get medical attention now you won't be able to complete the chunin exams. But all that you have to do is wait at the finish until the time runs out for the other genin, so it's only two days."

"I'll stay," I immediately make the decision. I've already made it this far, I wouldn't want to quit now.

"Fine then," she hands me three pill bottles. "This one is to protect from infections, take it in the mornings and at nights. This one's for any pain that you feel, but make sure that you have no more than three a day. And this one should deal with any more "emotional incidents"." She gestures to each one in turn.

"And be careful with your left leg, you wouldn't want to reopen the wound." She's talking about the wound from that girl's senbon needle. I give the woman a small nod and she vanishes.

My neutral expression changes to a frown, she didn't tell me what's wrong with my leg…

I flow my chakra back into it before pulling my boot back on. I hop off of the examination table and head into the hallway, and to the training area. Yes, they have a training area here, they gave us a bunch of thing to waste our time on. Cafeteria, training area, small arena, a lounging area, etc.

I step into the room and glance around for a second, Naruto and Sakura are here. Kiba and Hinata are also here, and also Lee's team.

"Erin! What'd they say about your leg?" Naruto runs over to me with a huge grin on his face, Sakura follows more slowly.

"They said that if I got full medical attention for it right now I'd have to quit the chunin exams. But all I have to do is wait until the second exam's finished so I decided not to get it fixed." Their faces fall for a second, they look concerned. "Besides, it can't be that bad. If it was I wouldn't get a choice." I add on.

"Ok Erin...just be careful not to push yourself too much." Sakura says worriedly.

"Anyways, let's train!" Cries Naruto, pumping a fist into the air. "We should totally spar, ya know!"

"Naruto, we just finished the second exam and you really want to spar! I can't believe you! Right Erin?"

"Sure I'll spar with you."

"You too!?"

"Let's go then!"

"Stop ignoring me!" Sakura practically screams at the top of her lungs as we jog out of the practice room. She runs after us. "NARUTO! ERIN!" I glance over my shoulder and see a very angry Sakura. Oh dear.

"Naruto go faster!" I push him from behind, I am not interested in experiencing Sakura's monster strength firsthand.

"I can't go any faster, ya know!" I glance over my shoulder again, she's rapidly gaining.

"Yes you can!" I push my hands on his back and go into full speed. The boy yells at the top of his lungs, now he's trying to slow us down. I look over his shoulder and spot some people walking in our direction, I keep on pushing Naruto. The group of chunin stare at use and slow to a stop but don't move out of the way. So I improvise.

I grab the back of Naruto's shirt, plant my feet, and throw him. He screams but he flies over the chunin's heads, I glance over my shoulder again-

Oh shit.-

"Ow!" I snap as she bonks me in the head with her fist.

"WhatdidIsayaboutnotoverdoingit!? HonestlyIexpectedNarutotoactlikeatotalkidbutyouErin!?" She grabs me by the collar of my trench coat and starts shaking me. "Andnowweveallgoneandmadefoolsofourselves!"

"Sakura I-"

"Doyouseriouslythinkthatwecanbecomechuninlikethis!? SometimesIwonderifSasukeandIaretheonlysenibleonesinthisteam!" She pauses for a second and looks at the chunin sheepishly. "Sorry, go ahead." They do so, and I can hear them muttering among themselves.

"Seewhatyoudid!? Nowtheyregonnathinkthatweretotalfreaksand-"

"Sakura I can't understand you." She freezes.

"What?"

"You're speaking too quickly and I've only picked up a grand total of ten words." I say and she lets go.

"Really Erin? I heard everything, ya know!" Naruto walks over to us, "and why'd ya have to throw me!?"

"Serves you right, Naruto! Erin needs to rest!" Sakura grabs my arm and starts dragging me in the other direction. "Let's just go and get something to eat!"

"But Sakura-" I start to complain but she immediately interrupts.

"No buts! You heard what the medic-nin said, don't overdo it!"

"Yes mother," I say with strong sarcasm as she drags me away.

~0~

"Just one more day, that's it, I only have to last for one more day." I mutter to myself as I stare at my right leg, it's starting to get a yellowish tint to it. The point where I get feeling again is also a purplish colour. I take a deep breath and pull my boots on. I can make it.

I step out of my room and head for the cafeteria.

"Erin!" I glance behind me to see Suigetsu's team, I wave and stop so they can catch up to me.

"Took you guys a while to get here," I comment as I start walking again. It's true, I haven't seen them for the last few days that I've been here. Apparently I hit a sore spot on Suigetsu.

"You know what Erin!? Not all of us can waltz to the finish without having both of our scrolls stolen in the middle of the night!"

"Pft," I try my best to cover my laugh.

"He fell asleep while he was on watch," Haku states and that's what tips me over the edge. I burst into the laughter while Suigetsu yells at Haku for telling me.

I calm down by the time we reach the cafeteria, "so you're telling me that you guys didn't have a single problem on the way to the finish?" Suigetsu complains loudly, I notice that the sand siblings are already up, and they're staring at us.

"Well, we ran into a weak team, but I destroyed them within five minutes with my explosives." I smirk, "it was fantastic."

"You KILLED THEM!?" I freeze for a second and feel nerves well up in my chest.

"No!" This is followed by an awkward silence, luckily Haku breaks it.

"What kind of explosives do you use?" Oh thank god for Haku, bless his soul. We sit down at a grey folding table in the middle of the room.

I set my tray down, "I use seals. I make them myself." I take a bite of my food.

"Oh, so you brought your art freak thing to a whole new level!" I send Suigetsu a very intense glare, how dare he? A memory flashes in my head and I smirk.

"Hey Suigetsu," I say and allow my chakra to spread into my hair so it raises and waves aggressively. "Remember what I said about insulting art?" I hold up a piece of paper and a pencil. He's gone in seconds, I laugh.

Haku and Chojuro give me dumbfounded looks, "last time that we saw each other Suigetsu insulted my art. I told him that if he ever did it again I would shove a sheet of paper and a pencil down his throat." I explain, allowing my dark red hair to lay flat across my shoulders. Chojuro looks horrified and Haku laughs politely.

"Erin!" I jump at Naruto's voice and turn in my seat, he's running. "Sasuke just got his butt kicked!" I frown.

"What?" I ask curiously, hmm, I wonder what happened? I feel like it's still against the rules to actually fight people.

"This guy with big bushy brows came and challenged Sasuke, and Sasuke lost, ya know! And he also asked Sakura-chan out on a date! The nerve!" Naruto's seething, it's kind of hilarious.

"Is the guy who you're talking about named Rock Lee?" I ask with a bored tone.

"You know his name!?" I nod.

"Yeah, we've trained together before." I take a spoon and stuff my mouth with what I think is porridge. I pause and frown in disgust, "this needs more sugar." I mutter before standing and finding the table with all of the condiments on them. Naruto follows close behind me.

"How have you managed to know almost everyone here!? And why are you hanging out with those guys instead of our squad, ya know!?" Something about his voice changes, it seems...desperate.

"...I see you guys every day-" I start but Naruto interrupts me.

"But things are different, ya know! We used to just hang out for the fun of it, but then everything changed after (A/N: The fire nation attacked *sorry I couldn't help myself*) the wave mission! Now it's like we only see you because you happen to be in our team…" He trails off, clearly not sure what to say. I look down at my porridge, he's right. If we weren't in the same team I don't think that we would ever really see each other. "It's just… I miss when you and I were friends and we'd hang out every day! Now it feels super weird, you got super serious all of a sudden, ya know!"

"Now it feels like it's a big deal and all special if you ever hang out with me for fun…" those words hit me, hard. I stare at his sad face with an awful feeling in my chest.

Oh Naruto, I wish that I could tell you. Then maybe you'd understand…

"Naruto I-" I pause, I don't even know what to say… "You know what? After I finish eating I'll hang out with you."

His face immediately brightens and he grins, "and Sakura-chan too? And I guess Sasuke…"

I give him the smallest smile, "yes." He pumps a fist in the air and runs off, that's funny because he didn't even tell me where to meet them. Whatever, I can just use my sensing to find them. I take my porridge and sit back down with Chojuro and Haku, oh wait, Suigetsu's back.

"What's up?" Haku asks casually.

"Nothing."

~0~

"Congratulations to all of you who have passed the second exam, you are almost chunin now." The Hokage says as he stands on a platform above us, all of us genin are standing in rows with our teams. It's funny because of team seven, of course since I'm not cannon I have to stand at the end of my line and not have anybody by my side. It feels pretty awkward…

"Before I give you further instructions I would like to explain the reason for the chunin exams…" I let out a small sigh, how long is this going to take? I definitely don't want to fight anyone at the moment but my leg's starting to drive me crazy. Every time I look at it I get an intense feeling of dread.

"For years the great ninja villages have been at war, it was only recently that the third shinobi war finished. After this war, the hidden villages made an agreement that as a replacement, they would hold chunin exams where genin from various villages would battle it out to honour their homes. This is what we have used to maintain peace." I frown, that's a pretty dumb way to maintain peace. You know, you could always just...not kill each other. "I wish all of you luck, I will pass the speech to your proctor."

With that, the Hokage steps back while a guy who looks absolutely exhausted moves to the middle of the platform.

"My name is Gekkō Hayate, as you already heard I am the third exam's proctor.-" He suddenly stops talking to let out a cough, "hmm, anyways the third exam will consist of one on one battles, so from this point on you aren't fighting in teams."

He starts coughing again, damn, I really hope that he's gotten that checked. "But, this time around it appears as if there are too many participants, so we need to have a preliminary match." People immediately start shouting.

"Can't we just go with our current number?" Asks Sakura from in front of me.

"We don't want to deal with any prolonged matches." Hayate answers and people go silent. "The preliminaries will be held right now."

"What!? But we just got finished the second exam!" Ino complains, it's true for her team, they basically finished last minute.

Hayate chooses to ignore her, "anybody who does not think that they can do the preliminaries should quit now, I'll give you a few minutes to decide."

Dead silence follows his words, I don't think that anyone plans on quitting. But much to my surprise, a few groups start muttering among themselves.

"Sasuke-kun, Erin, I think that both of you should quit…" I jump in surprise, I was definitely expecting Sakura to mention Sasuke but definitely not me. Sasuke's basically been hiding out in his room for the past few days, I've been making an effort to actually be around Naruto and Sakura.

"Sakura, I've lasted this long, I can handle a fight." I state, I am absolutely not letting my suffering go to waste. I need to convince her that I'm fine.

"Erin, I've seen you limping, and you're just getting more and more pale!" Sakura whispers desperately.

"Sakura, we're fine." Sasuke tries to persuade. Sakura looks between us, I swear that I can see tears in her eyes. I freeze as she starts to raise her hand, luckily Sasuke stops her. "Don't you dare rat us out." There's a sudden aggression in Sasuke's tone that I don't like.

"Oi! Sasuke stop it!" Naruto snaps angrily.

"The only way that I can become stronger is by fighting strong people, those people are here." Sasuke pauses, Naruto looks like he's about to interrupt but Sasuke speaks too quickly. "Naruto, you're one of the people that I want to fight."

Oh, here's the bromance moment, all of the energy is here. "Sasuke I-"

"I quit!" We jump at Kabuto's voice, the guy holds his hands up in defeat.

"K-Kabuto-san! Why're you quitting!?" Naruto cries in dismay, he almost breaks out of line but I stop him with my hand.

"The second exam really took a lot out of me, I don't think that I could handle anymore." Bullshit.

"Oh...ok." Naruto accepts, there's a moment of silence.

"Is that it? Ok good, the first two fighters will appear on the screen behind me." I wonder what the fights are going to be because I've changed quite a lot. Suddenly Hayate frowns, "it looks like we have an odd number...whatever, somebody's just going to have to go twice." I freeze, I swear to god if it's me…

I DO NOT want to be the one to go twice. What am I? Somebody's Mary Sue OC in a fanfiction!? I am not interested in that garbage. Absolutely not.

"Uchiha Sasuke vs Yoroi," I look up at the screen, at least that's the same.

"The two whose name's came up step forward." Sasuke has a confident smirk on his face as he breaks from our line. One of Kabuto's teammates who is incredibly plane looking steps forward as well. "Alright, the rest of you go up there." Hayate points to the platforms on the sides of the room, everyone files on. All of those from Konoha other than Kabuto's teammate who isn't fighting goes on the same side.

"Kakashi-sensei you're here!" Naruto cries excitedly, I dip my head in a greeting at the man.

"Yo, I'm proud that you guys made it this far." He answers cheerfully. I nod in acknowledgement and turn my attention back to the soon to be fight.

Hayate stands between Sasuke and Yoroi, there's a moment of dead silence before Hayate suddenly lifts his hand up high. "Three, two, one, fight!" He then jumps out of the way as Yoroi launches at Sasuke.

Sasuke confidently moves to block, but it is at this moment that I remember Yoroi's abilities. "Sasuke don't let him touch you!" I blurt without thinking, Sasuke immediately reacts by dodging instead of blocking.

"If anyone intervenes in a fight again both the fighter and the person who interrupted will be disqualified!" Hayate yells and I bite my lip. That was bad, I know almost everyone here's abilities so I should be more careful…

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke yells but suddenly he stops, he clutches his shoulder in pain. Uh oh, the curse seal…

In seconds Sasuke's pinned to the ground, Yoroi's absorbing Sasuke's chakra but I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one who knows exactly what's happening.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cries in dismay, she clutches the railing and leans forward. Sasuke's struggling gets weaker and weaker, eventually I start to recognize what looks like black flames spreading across his skin.

He'd better not let the curse mark take over, or else he's in a lot of trouble.

They're spreading further, it isn't supposed to be like this. In the anime the curse mark didn't even start showing until towards the end of this fight.

"Get it together Sasuke!" Naruto yells at the top of his lungs as he leans dangerously against the railing. "You're gonna let yourself look this pathetic in front of everyone!?" Naruto's words must have reached him because the dark markings disappear, Sasuke kicks Yoroi off of him and stands.

Yoroi stands and says something but I don't hear, he runs at Sasuke again. Sasuke barely manages to duck and dodge out of the way because of how exhausted he must be. All that I can do is sit here and clutch the metal railing and I don't like it.

I don't like seeing others being hurt, especially those who are in my team…

Suddenly I realize that Sasuke managed to kick that guy in the chin, so hard that he's flying upwards. Sasuke jumps upwards after him, in midair Sasuke kicks Yoroi several times and finishes him off as he lands.

"Lion's Barrage!" Sasuke cries as hit foot smashes down on the man's stomach. The momentum actually makes Sasuke fly back and skid across the ground on his stomach. Hayate steps forward, looks at Yoroi, and then looks at Sasuke who's beginning to drag himself up.

"Uchiha Sasuke is the winner of the first preliminary match." Hayate says with another cough, Kakashi takes this as a cue and hops off of the platform. He calmly walks to Hayate and and mutters something.

He's probably asking if he can take Sasuke away because of the curse mark. After a few words Hayate nods, "Uchiha Sasuke also passes." Kakashi walks over to Sasuke and helps him up, Kakashi says something and Sasuke immediately argues back but he's talked back down.

"I'll be back in a little bit, behave, you three." I nod at my mentor and he disappears along with Sasuke in a flurry of leaves.

"Alright, onto the next fight." We turn our attention back to the screen, several letters appears at random before it lands on two names. "Hozuki Suigetsu vs Aburame Shino."

"The two on the screen step forward." Suigetsu's already down there, Shino hops down. "Three, two, one, fight!"

"Feel free to quit at any time!" Suigetsu says as he stretches his arms.

"That's funny, I was about to say the same thing." Shino replies but he doesn't make a move, it looks like he just wants to evaluate what Suigetsu will do.

Suigetsu finished stretching and suddenly smirks. "Hmm, I just thought about how I'm going to beat you." He says as he lazily points at Shino with his hand in a gun position. I stiffen, does Suigetsu plan on killing Shino? I saw what this jutsu can do earlier. "Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu!" As the name says, bullets of water shoot at Shino. And they hit him.

I freeze, Shino falls to the ground. "D-Did he kill Shino?" I hear Naruto ask quietly, I don't answer as I look down. I let out a sigh of relief, Shino's clone bursts into a cloud of insects.

The real Shino appears behind Suigetsu, and kicks him right in the face. But his foot goes right through him as he turns his face into water. "Whoa! How did he do that!?" I hear Sakura and Naruto cry simultaneously but I don't answer.

Suigetsu counters, he grabs his leg, I notice that his arm suddenly swells and appears more muscular. He throws Shino easily, accompanied with a sickening crack Shino lands on his back. Suigetsu throws three kunai and they plunge straight into Shino's throat.

I can't help but gape until it's confirmed that the Shino that Suigetsu killed was a clone, thank god. Within just a few minutes this fight has made something very clear, Suigetsu has killed many people before.

I watch as the real Shino appears again, limping really badly. "I can't fight you with my broken leg, I concede." He says, I have no idea how he isn't screaming in pain right now.

"Wait what!? It was that easy for Shino to just give up, I can't believe it!" Naruto snaps aggressively.

"I think that what Shino chose was the best thing that he could do." I say monotonously as Hayate names Suigetsu the winner. "He couldn't use taijutsu anymore and Suigetsu can turn into water. Shino's main weapon are his insects, and Suigetsu could easily just drown all of them." Naruto stares at me for a moment before turning his attention back to the screen.

"Whatever, I just thought that Shino was a tough guy, ya know." I nod in agreement as the letters begin to spin.

"Erin! I hope that we get to fight each other!" I jump at Lee's voice and turn around.

"Don't just randomly shout like that, and don't get your hopes up. There are currently eighteen people in this room so the chances of you being matched up with me at some point are one in seventeen." Lee frowns for a moment and I can tell that he's doing all of the math in his head.

"Yeah I guess…"

"Misumi vs Haruno Sakura, the two who I just named step forward." That...is different. Ok, what's Misumi's ability?

It's hard to remember, all that I can really think of is that Kankuro beat him within five minutes…

I think hard as Sakura and him stand in front of each other. "Three, two, one, fight!" Ok, the fight was probably to show off Kankuro's puppeteering abilities. So, Kankuro switched out with his puppet...oh now I remember!

This is the guy who can dislocate all of his limbs and basically bend his bones at will.

I let out a sigh, it's too late for me to warm Sakura now, I'll get in trouble. I look back down, much to my surprise the fight only just started even though I was thinking for a few minutes.

Sakura barely manages to dodge an...arm? Ok so in addition to being able to turn his limbs into noodles this man is capable of lengthening his arms and legs. He's dangerous…

"Come on Sakura-chan! You can do it, believe it!" Naruto pumps a fist into the air as he cheers. I watch the fight anxiously, even though in the anime this guy went down within three minutes of his fight with Kankuro he could be a nasty opponent. The only reason why he lost was because he was caught off guard, if he manages to get Sakura in one of the chokeholds displayed in the anime…

"Clone Jutsu!" Five normal clones appear around Sakura and she runs at the man. He immediately takes a swing at her and manages to take out two of her clones.

Come on Sakura, use your monster strength…

She reaches the man and with an almighty "CHA!" she body checks him, stabbing a kunai into his stomach.

"Yeah Sakura-san!" Lee cheers loudly but I don't say a word.

She didn't use enough force, he must be wearing mesh armour beneath his clothes. The man regains his balance, I feel my stomach lurch as he counters.

He punches Sakura right in the face, and she flies backwards. I clutch the railing tightly as before she can even pick herself up, Sakura is lifted off of the ground...by her long pink hair. Just watching makes my scalp itch, and for some reason...I feel rage.

Sakura struggles in midair, I hate how helpless she looks. I want to help.

She looks ready to give up, come on Sakura, there's a way for you to get away! I-I can't hold it in anymore.

"Don't you dare give up!" I snarl furiously, "you aren't going to lose to somebody like this are you!? Definitely not this easily!"

Her green eyes flash in my direction, people turn and stare at me in shock.

After a moment Naruto grins, "go Sakura-chan!"

"You can do it Sakura-san!" Lee joins in, I stare at Sakura intensely. Come on, think! You're smart enough to think of the obvious answer, Sakura.

Suddenly realization flashes in Sakura's eyes and still in midair she pulls a kunai out of her holster.

"You don't really think that you can do anything with that, right?" Misumi asks with arrogance, I narrow my eyes, just wait, dumbass.

Sakura smirks, "it's not for you!" With that she twists and cuts all of her hair, yes! She lands on the ground and sends Misumi an intense glare. "Don't take me lightly!" Sakura runs at him in full speed, the man narrows his eyes behind his glasses before launching his arms at her.

She ducks and dodges as she runs, I can't help but smirk. But it's when Sakura is within a few feet of Misumi that she's hit, my stomach drops. But Sakura suddenly turns into a log and I spot her behind him.

"CHA!" She hits him with all of her power, I see blood drip onto the ground as the man stumbles forward. I look down expectantly, he should drop down now.

But he doesn't…

In an instant, he rounds on Sakura. And catches her right in the throat…

I freeze, nonono…

He holds her there until she loses consciousness, and then he drops her, like she's nothing.

I don't even hear Hayate declare the winner, I just watch Sakura. I know that she isn't dead, but…

I turn my gaze to Misumi, he just said something in my direction. "What…?" I ask quietly.

"Pff, I said that you shouldn't have said a word, then I would've just finished her off faster." I narrow my eyes at him, Sakura should've won. Sakura is the one who deserves it. "Brats like you should learn your place, especially when you're as weak and useless as this one." He gestures to Sakura who's being put on a stretcher by some medic-nins.

"Do you want to come up here and say that to my face!?" I snarl, Sakura is not useless. I feel my chakra starting to spread dangerously around my body, it's reacting to my anger. Since my trench coat has practically been soiled I have just wear a tank top with mesh armour, so everyone gets a full display of my black blood vessels.

Misumi smirks, the dark chakra spreads to my head, my hair raises off of my shoulders. I want to kill him, my chakra's telling me to kill him.

I freeze when I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look up to see Kakashi, "Erin, let it go." I frown as I try to register the words, in my state I can barely recognize that Kakashi's gesture isn't him trying to kill me. "Erin, look at me." He kneels down to my height with both hands on my shoulders.

"Kakashi! Be careful!"

"Erin, leave it for later." My mind is racing, why is he trying to get me to pay attention to him when my target's over there? My eyes widen in realization he's trying to get in my way!

"Kakashi-sensei, what's wrong with Erin!?"

"Naruto stay back!" People are shouting, the noise just gets me riled up. I can't help but grin when I recognize a certain terrifying chakra within Naruto's, I turn to look. "Erin, look. At. Me."

"Get out of my way." I hiss and try to pull his hands off of my shoulders, if he doesn't give up, I'll kill him.

As fast as lightning, Kakashi lets go of my right shoulder and pulls up his hidden leaf headband. I freeze, I know that eye…

My chakra immediately recoils at the sight of sharingan, I drop to my knees because the the chakra that was supporting my right leg is now missing. My chakra retreats back into my necklace, I sit there, my mind completely blank for a few seconds.

But my consciousness suddenly floods back into me. I drop my gaze from Kakashi and look at my hands in horror at what I almost did.

"S-Sensei I-" I barely manage to choke before burying my hands into my face in shame.

"It's fine." I'm not crying but I'm shaking uncontrollably. "Are you alright?"

"I-I don't know…" My voice is barely more than a whisper.

"Well, just sit here and we'll see how you're doing in a few minutes. Don't do anything that would make us uneasy." I pull my hands from my face and nod, I look around for a second before moving to lean against the wall. "-Naruto, leave her alone." I look up to see Kakashi standing in Naruto's way, people have formed a pretty wide circle around me.

"Don't worry Kakashi-sensei! Erin's my friend, she wouldn't hurt me. Ever, believe it!" I stare at Naruto in shock, why would he ever want to even look at me again after that outburst?

Him and Kakashi argue, eventually I intervene. "Naruto can sit with me if he wants…" I say quietly, it might actually help…

In seconds Naruto's beside me with a huge grin on his face, so close that our sides are touching. Usually I'd hate this, but now it makes me feel better. Like I'm less alone.

I look back out and my eyes settle on Misumi, and I feel a flare of rage.

And somewhere in my mind I swear that I hear hysterical laughter.

~0~

A/N: *Spoilers for Erin's future partner, if you don't want to spoil a part of my story then don't read beyond this point, even though the this IS pretty vague.

It appears as if SOMEBODY has managed to guess EXACTLY who Erin's future partners is going to be. I'm not going to name anyone but you know who you are, if you feel like finding out who Erin's partner is without reading the actual STORY then check out the review section. It'll be the person who stated a single name.

Also if there are any HunterxHunter fans out there I've started a fanfic, it's called Special ittle Monster!


	46. Chapter 45

Chapter 45:

I sit there, silently watching until my name is finally called. And when I see who I'm fighting, I smirk.

"Latté Erin vs Misumi." I silently stand and move towards the railing to jump down, but Kakashi stops me.

"If things get out of hand I'll have to step in." He warns and I nod, I've had the time to cool off. I plan on taking my time in this fight, half of me has decided this because I want to be careful while the other half wants as much time to make this man suffer as possible.

I land on the dusty ground and face my opponent. He glares down at me and I smirk at him.

Lucky me, I wasn't the one who had to go twice but I just so happened to get to fight the person who did, and that person just so happens to be the one who I want to fight the most.

"Does anyone oppose this fight?"

"No." We say it at the same time, but based on Misumi's chakra he's nervous.

"Fine then, three, two, one, fight!"

Misumi is on the opposite side of the arena in less than a second. "Listen, this is your first and last chance to give up!" He takes out a kunai and gets into a defensive stance.

I ignore his statement and take out ten kunai, with a flick of my wrists they're scattered around the arena. As I decided before I'm going to take my time, make him exhaust himself before finishing him off.

I'm ready.

He says something else but I ignore it, I switch with a kunai behind him. "Fire Style: Searing Embers!" My chakra is reacting to my mood so instead of the usual hot air, I exhale fire. Actually...maybe I'm taking the more sadistic approach.

I hear him scream in pain and I see an arm reaching towards me, I switch. I land on the ground and watch as Misumi struggles to put the fire on him out.

I take out seal and open it, water splashes on the ground and I form hand seals. "Water Style: Hidden in the Mist Jutsu!" My chakra burns through my legs and into my feet, from there it flows into the water beneath me. A weak mist rises around us as I can sense Misumi reaching towards me again.

I wait until I can faintly smell his burning flesh, before I react. "Lightning Style: Lightning Rod!" I grab his arm and don't let go. He screams in pain again as electricity flows everywhere around us because of the mist.

I wait until he collapses before switching again, I'm back where I was when the fight first started. I allow the mist to clear, Misumi's slowly dragging himself to his feet.

I smirk and get back into a fighting stance, I study him for a second. His clothes are completely singed and I can see bright red burns where his skin is showing.

I flood chakra through my chest and take out five shuriken accompanied with ninja wire. I throw them at him, he looks around in panic but it's too late. He's completely wrapped in ninja wire, "Lightning Style: Lightning Rod!" There is no such thing as overusing a technique, if it works I'm going to use it as many times as I like. The usual pained screaming takes place, but suddenly Misumi turns into a log.

I immediately drop what I'm doing and whip around since Misumi isn't in my line of vision. I yell in pain as sand is thrown right into my eyes, I stumble backwards in a struggle to get away.

I feel myself get hit right in the stomach and I fall backwards. I immediately draw out chakra to switch with a kunai, but I freeze.

I need to see what I'm doing to be able to switch.

I rub at my eyes as I get up and run. This is bad, he figured out the weakness in my strategy.

I focus on my sensory abilities to dodge, but I know that I'm being cornered. I bring extra chakra to my legs and jump, I fly over Misumi's head but as I'm landing I feel something wrap around my left calf.

It twists, I scream in pain as I feel the bone itself being crushed and the muscles and ligaments being torn.

I pull out a kunai and viciously slash at the arm that's still twisting my last properly functioning leg. He lets go and I land on the ground, hard.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" I struggle to breath properly as I completely surround myself. I take out a water bottle, tilt my head back, and pour it on my eyes. I blink away the water and look down, I immediately gag at the bloody sight.

Oh god, what do I do? A few tears force their way out of my eyes as panic rises. I don't know if I can fight anymore, my right leg is already barely working and now this..

I sense Misumi coming my way, oh god I have to give up.

'No you don't.' I freeze as I hear a rough voice, chakra begins to spread throughout my body.

Oh no, I don't want to use this power…

'Don't worry, I'll finish him off.' The voice continues and against my will I stand. The chakra reaches my head and I struggle to stay conscious as I'm completely surrounded by bubbling black chakra.

I struggle to regain control of my body as it launches out of the walls that I created. I land on all fours on the dusty ground, my eyes are forced in Misumi's direction.

Nonononono!

I slowly stand and lift a hand, my chakra coils around it to form that shape of a much bigger clawed hand.

No please…

My tears immediately turn into steam as they're shed. I launch forward, hand outstretched.

Somebody stop me!

Nobody does…

I stare into Misumi's shocked eyes as my hand plunges through his chest. I feel hot blood gushing on my arm, I watch in horror as the man chokes and black chakra spreads through his entire body.

I pull my hand out of his terrible feeling chest and the man collapses, it's deed done, my chakra returns to my necklace. I fall to my knees beside the body and numbly look at my hands. One is perfectly clean and the other is covered in disgusting, hot, blood.

"Misumi is dead, Latté Erin is the winner and passes the preliminaries!" I turn to see Hayate standing over me.

"Erin!-"

"Why didn't you stop me?" I mutter as Kakashi lands beside me, my tears start falling.

"Erin I…" I don't hear the rest of his answer because I black out even while I'm still sitting up.

~0~

I open my eyes to see a white ceiling above me, I groan and try to roll over but my left leg screams in pain.

"You're awake!" I jump and look to see a nurse, it isn't Minami much to my disappointment.

"...I'm in the hospital?" I ask, "how long have I been passed out?"

The nurse just shakes her head, "you need to talk to the doctor, I'll be right back." With that she disappears, I let out a sigh and try to lift my hands. But after a few centimetres, I feel resistance. I've been strapped to the bed.

Why though? I thought that I was past the point of being a possible enemy…

Oh.

I remember now, I killed somebody. A hollow feeling enters my chest, I knew that at some point I was going to have to kill people but I didn't expect it to be so soon… And I don't know if it was truly me who did it, I know that my body did it but it wasn't under my control.

That voice that I heard...I think that it belongs to my chakra. Yes, I'm almost completely sure.

My thoughts are interrupted when Haru walks in, along with the nurse from before. "Where's Minami?" I can't help but immediately ask, it is pretty weird that she isn't here. I'd imagine that she should have been here when I woke up.

"She's busy with other patients," I notice the serious note in Haru's voice, something's wrong. He gestures for the nurse and she moves to unstrap me.

"What is it?" I ask, it's probably the outburst that I had. Something to do with learning how to control whatever it is.

Haru shakes his head and just puts a sheet of paper in my lap. "A waiver form?" I mutter under my breath as I pick it up, what is this about?

I begin to read and freeze.

I look reread the words over and over but it doesn't quite compute.

THE FOLLOWING PATIENT AGREES WITH ALL OF THE TERMS INVOLVING HAVING PARTS OF BOTH LEGS BEING AMPUTATED.

SIGN HERE:

"For both legs the bones from middle of your calves and below have been completely shattered, along with muscles, nerves, and blood vessels being ripped apart." Haru says solemnly, "it's a miracle that you didn't die of blood loss with your right leg."

I slowly move my eyes up to stare at the man as he looks at his clipboard. "I have some questions to ask. When and how did you break the first leg, also how have you managed to keep it from rotting?"

I look back down at my hands, what's happening has to be some sort of a sick joke, right? I guess that I'll play along for now. "I broke my right leg in the second exam, I was hit by a very powerful wind style and I flew into a tree. I guess that I must have landed on it, I don't know how it hasn't rotted. And are you saying that my right leg is dead?"

"Yes, it is. Have you taken any medication lately?" Haru continues, it's funny actually. He's making it sound like this is just the regular checkup. Maybe when this is all over I'll get some sort of candy…

"Just painkillers and things to keep it from being infected." I haven't touched the emotional suppressants, even though I probably should have before my fight. I guess that I was just caught up in the moment. "And there isn't any way to fix my legs?"

"No, after you amputate we could try Hashirama cells to grow them back but...they're only being tested for now and we don't know how your body would react because you don't have any natural chakra and these cells are very rich with it." Hashirama cells? Hashirama Senju was the very first Hokage, and he was famous for his wood style jutsu. I've never heard of Hashirama cells before, but I guess that they can possibly heal amputated limbs.

But...I'm starting to think that this is serious…

"So...what would I do after the operation?"

"You could retire, you'll get plenty of money. There are plenty of shinobi who have retired after becoming an amputee and are living comfortably now. But, I don't know if it's even possible for you to continue with your current career. Even the modern prosthetic limbs aren't very good… at least not in Konoha, and if you manage to make it work, I doubt that you'll make it past genin." I slowly shake my head and run a hand through my hair, this can't be true… "I'll give you a few minutes to process this, this is a lot of information to take in. Just let us know if you want to see a councillor."

I don't react as they leave, I have no idea what the correct reaction for this situation is. I suppose that I should feel hopeless and depressed, but how is that going to help me in any way? I've never gained anything from getting all emotional and crying about my problems.

Am I going to retire after I amputate? Hell no. I'll design the prosthetics myself if I have to. I've seen the blade runners in the Paralympics back in my world, I'll use that design.

"So, are you ready to sign?" I look up at Haru as he walks in.

"Yes." He hands me a pen and I don't hesitate to sign my name in English handwriting.

"You're taking this surprisingly well…" Haru mutters as I hand him a sheet of paper.

"Would having an entire mental breakdown grow my legs back?" I ask in a dead serious voice, but I can feel the situation slowly getting bigger in my mind.

"No, but...are you ok?"

I shrug, "probably not. I'll probably lose my cool in a couple of hours."

"Well umm, your surgery is scheduled for tomorrow. Do you want visitors to be allowed?" Haru asks with a huge frown still on his face. I turn the thought over in my head before nodding, "very well," Haru dips his head before leaving.

When he's gone I let out a sigh and let myself fall back onto my pillow. What a mess. I just killed somebody, my chakra is basically out of my control now, and I'm about to lose the ability to walk naturally. To add to that, I'm pretty sure that the medic-nin who looked at my leg the other day knew exactly how bad it was.

I'm going to have to talk to Danzo about that…

Damn, life just has a special way of screwing me over doesn't it? I can't help but give a short laugh at that thought.

First I'm born into a shitty family with a freaking narcissistic bitch for a mother and an alcoholic failure for a father, luckily I had my brother… the only one who cared about me. After the age of eleven both of us were taken out of that shithole and into foster care, that was an interesting experience, it was stressful but not nearly as bad as my birth home. Finally my life was starting to settle down and I thought that things might be alright, and then I made the idiotic decision of picking up this damn necklace. Then I'm dragged away from my own world and my brother, I'm put into the narutoverse where I can't understand a single word that is spoken to me. I wallowed in self pity and depression for a sold three months, before I decided to get over it and work my ass off. Of course I'm kidnapped and I realize that there's no way that I'll be able to live as a peaceful civilian, so I became a shinobi. Everything went pretty well until it didn't, I was put into the protagonists team. Shit happened, I joined ROOT, which I'm starting to question the motives of. And now I'm sitting in the hospital, just found out that the middle of both of my calves are crushed beyond repair. And I'm pretty sure that my chakra is actually a monster that wants to take control of my body and kill people so…

I burst into laughter, no wonder most people hate me. I probably only have friends because they feel bad for me, they probably would love to just get rid of me.

I hold my sides because I'm laughing so hard. And now I'm just laying here, feeling bad for myself. Some of these things are MY fault, I didn't have to pick up that necklace, I didn't have to join ROOT, I didn't have to complete the chunin exams, I didn't have to fight Misumi.

I keep on laughing until it turns into crying, and I keep on crying until I pass out…

I'm pathetic.

~0~

A/N: This is a wild, pretty short chapter. It might be the third last. Oh yeah, I've reached 100 FAVOURITES so I'm gonna make the next chapter special!

Also, To Ginger:

Thank you so much for the advice! I'll try to find a beta reader, but also as I said before after the first part of my story is finished I plan on taking a short break to redo a lot of the chapters and republish it. Cuz' let's be honest, for the first little while my grammar, details, and spelling was absolute garbage. I'll also work on Erin's character in general, again, thank you!


	47. Chapter 46

Chapter 46:

"I don't wanna go…" Erin said quietly to her older brother. A large billboard stood in front of her soon to be school, huge letters welcoming the new people.

"I'll be just be down the hall, don't worry!" Conner kneeled down beside the four year old before tucking her dark red bangs behind her ear from where they covered her left eye. Erin gave him a look, and he sighed, "mom wants you to go to school, so you don't get much of a choice."

At the mention of her mother Erin subconsciously felt for the bruise on the back of her neck. It was from when she accidentally broke the TV remote and she was punished...but she didn't remember even touching the remote… She was pretty sure that the batteries just ran out.

"Besides, maybe you'll make some friends!" Erin didn't want to make friends, she just wanted to be with Conner.

She supposed that school could be a bit of a break, she wouldn't have to spend the entire day slinking around her house to avoid her mom.

The other kids must have felt the same way, spending time at school meant spending time away from home, which meant time away from their parents. Erin nodded and the two walked into the huge building.

The first thing that she saw, shocked her. "Don't leave me!" Another child screamed at the top of his lungs with his arms wrapped around an adult's legs. Erin silently stared as the adult shushed him, there must have been something seriously wrong with that kid for the adult to be so gentle with him.

Erin's attention was taken by Conner as he gave her a hug. "I'll see you at the end of the day!" She hugged back.

"Mmhmm!" She waved as he walked away, then she turned around and walked into the room.

She froze, just past the doorway.

Toys were everywhere, the alphabet was displayed in all colours of the rainbow. Numbers were all over the walls, there were what looked like hundreds of markers, the floor was a mix of red and blue patterns.

Other kids ran around, yelling and screaming while they played.

Erin thought that it was an eyesore.

"Why hello there! What's your name?" Erin jumped and looked at a younger woman who she assumed was the teacher. Erin immediately dropped her gaze and muttered her name, but ignored the teacher's name. "Your desk is right over there, it has your name on it! Do you know how to read your name?" Erin nodded, she'd already been taught the entire alphabet and knew most numbers because of Conner.

The teacher gave Erin a strange look, but continued with her cheery demeanor. Which Erin could clearly see was fake. "Well, you could go and play until the rest of your classmates arrive!" Erin was gone in seconds, glad to escape the adult.

She quietly looked around, before spotting somewhere to escape. She sat down among several beanbag chairs and observed her classmates.

They acted so...strange. So happy and loud, Erin didn't like it.

And to add to that, some of them would sometimes just walk up to the teacher willingly. Like they were completely trusting of her, as if...they never have had an adult be cruel to them.

Like they'd never been locked in their bedrooms all day. Like they were never yelled at for no reason, like they had never been blamed for their parent's failures. Like they had never been beaten up before, like they had never been forced to skip meals. Like they never had to lock their bedroom door every night so that they wouldn't have to worry about when their dad came home drunk, and dangerous...

Like what she had with her parent's wasn't normal.

~0~

Erin spent half of a year just observing her classmates. Rarely talking, but always listening.

She was sure, it was normal for adults to be nice.

She only had to test it.

Her class was halfway through the ABCs when she suddenly stood. Everyone abruptly cut off because it was so out of character for her.

"Erin, is there something wrong?" Her teacher asked worriedly, taking a step forward. Little did she know, Erin was analyzing her.

There was a moment of dead silence, before Erin took a deep breath.

And she screamed.

She forced tears to drop out of her eyes as she threw herself onto the ground to make her tantrum seem more real. In seconds the teacher was standing over her, with a look of complete shock over her face.

Erin willed her to do it. To punish her for disrupting class, kick her in the face, stomp her out until she couldn't scream anymore. Erin tensed her body as much as she could while still throwing her tantrum for preparation of the hits.

But they never came.

Erin was proved right.

Her tears became real as she took her frustration out, her classmates stared down at her in bewilderment. Sure, most of them had cried once or twice during the school year but they had never expected a single peep from Erin. A few starting snickering amongst themselves because they had always known that she was a bit of a freak.

Erin's distress grew more and more as the teacher didn't lay a single hand on her, didn't even threaten.

From that point on, a searing rage began to grow.

~0~

Erin adjusted her backpack as she walked to a park away from school, Conner had a track practice so she decided not to bother going home. What would the seven year old do there anyways? Just slink around the house, avoiding her mother.

Up until she was six, she had desperately tried to make a connection with her mother. Didn't even try with her father though, he was almost never around and sometimes he could be dangerous.

She gave up when her mother dropped her off at a park and drove away. Erin had already been a little bit suspicious because the only way to get her mother to take her to a park was for Conner to nag her. So when her mother suggested going to the park Erin was hopeful, but at the same time terrified. The next thing that she knew, her mother had just driven off.

She was lost for three days, before Conner found her. Erin remembered how hard he had cried, but she didn't show any emotion other than disappointment and mild depression. From that point on Erin lost all love for either of her parents, and most respect for others.

"Hey!" Erin turned on her heel to look at a group of who she remembered were her classmates jogging up. She narrowed her eyes. "Hey, aren't ya gonna say something!?" Why were these brats talking to her? They knew that the only times that she talked were when a teacher asked her a question, or when she was doing what she called a "social experiment". She would say something and find out the average reaction.

She said something mean, the other kid cried. She said something nice...reactions were mixed. She basically had it down, and had figured out how most of her classmates functioned.

"You're really stuck up, you know that!?" Erin didn't react as a boy stepped forward and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. "You know, you could just stop ignoring us!" She wasn't going to give them what they wanted, any attention. These brats were below average, mentally at least.

"We'll totally beat you up if ya won't even say something!" They wouldn't. Erin had been shoved up against lockers, threatened, yelled at, just for a reaction. Her guess was that they wouldn't even do anything.

Apparently she was wrong.

There was a moment of dead silence, "...so that's how it is." Erin fought the urge to panic as she was put in a headlock.

She silently stared at the leader, right before he punched her in the face. Erin almost laughed, she had been hit with much, much worse.

He hit her again, this time in the stomach. Erin didn't let out a peep.

He kept on hitting her until he exhausted himself. Erin paused, still in a headlock, before spitting out some blood. She looked and recognize a tooth in the red mess left on the pavement.

The children stared at her in horror as she let the smallest smirk spread across her face.

"Pathetic..." There was a moment of dead silence, before a girl in pigtails burst into tears and ran. The others followed suit, Erin silently watched them go before doing her best to wipe the blood off of her face.

Conner was gonna be really mad if he saw the bruises…

Throughout the rest of the school year Erin got her revenge. The teacher had been told that she had simply fallen down some stairs, it made the bullies think that they were safe and that Erin moved on.

But she waited a little bit to give them a false sense of security.

First she put thumbtacks all over the leader's seat.

Then a few weeks later she mixed paint into a girl's water bottle.

She moved on when each person had at least one "unfortunate accident" happen to them.

~0~

Erin sent her mother a glare as she rested a hand on her shoulder. "Well, things have been a little bit stressful since her father's been looking for a new job." The woman lied smoothly before tightening her grip painfully on her arm, a warning.

The principal stared at the two of them with distrusting eyes, along with her teacher. "Well, that doesn't give Erin the right to disrespect both her teachers and her classmates!" Pathetic. All of them were so pathetic. Erin almost sneered.

For a moment she contemplated expressing how abusive her mother was.

But she didn't, in a way she was scared of it. If she was taken away from her family she may never see Conner again… And a little voice told her that somehow, her mother or her father would find her and get their revenge.

"I-I'm sorry…" Erin faked, "I'll try to do better, I promise. I've just been...so tired…" She bowed her head, lately her anger had just been...out of control.

Since Erin knew that the teachers would never lay a hand on her, she took it out on them and her classmates. Her classmates could hit her all that they wanted, but would never do nearly as much damage as her mother or father had done.

In a way she admitted that she liked the attention. The reactions that she would get were both satisfying and entertaining.

"You'd better." The principle writes on a slip of paper and hands it to Erin's mother. "You have to stay after school for the next few weeks." Erin didn't react.

"I will see you tomorrow, Erin." The teacher nodded at them as they got up and exited the room.

"You can walk home." Erin's mother stated as they entered the freezing winter air. "I'll be waiting." Erin's stomach dropped, there was no doubt, she was going to be punished for making her mother leave the house.

She stuffed her hands into her pockets as she watched the car drive away. She pondered on even going home but she had nowhere to stay. She didn't have any friends to take her in and it was minus twenty five out, and besides, Conner would panic if she didn't go home.

So she trudged in the direction of her home, pondering the pain that awaited her while she shivered. Suddenly she sensed something that was wrong, she glanced over her shoulder. A black truck coming up from behind.

Erin's walking stiffened, she immediately knew. The person in the car had bad intentions. "Oi! Kid, what're you doing out here at this time of night!? Y'know it's cold right!?" Erin silently stared at the man who drove, he didn't have a passenger in the front seat but she could see two other men in the back. "Tell me you address and I'll take you home!"

"Is there anyone else in your car?" Erin was already sure, but if this man told the truth there was a chance of getting away by politely saying "no".

The man looked taken back by the question, but then started stuttering. "O-Of course not! Do ya see anyone at the front with me!?" This man thought that she was an idiot, Erin immediately started running. She glanced behind her to see the car giving chase.

There was no way Erin was going to escape if she stayed next to the road, so at the first alleyway she turned. She kept on running, turning at random to try to confuse her pursuers. Until she finally ran into a dead end, in her panic she furiously looked around.

The first thing that she spotted was a trash can, so she plunged into it. When she was in she wriggled around until the trash bag was mostly on top of her. She struggled to stop shivering in the freezing cold and avoided touching the metal sides of the trash can, so the cold wouldn't burn her hands.

She didn't know how long she had layed there, but she was barely conscious when she suddenly realized that the sun was beginning to rise. She let out a long sigh, the men must have given up.

She pushed the garbage off of herself before standing. Erin was completely stiff from the cold as she brushed the dirt and grime off of herself. She decided that she shouldn't bother going home, she would just go back to school.

She hugged herself as she made her way back, after a few minutes she tugged at her hair because there was so much frost in it from her breath.

By the time that she made it to the school, other than her freezing cold Erin almost didn't look as if she had spent the entire night outside. Luckily it was late enough that the doors were unlocked, but early enough that she had a full hour before classes started. She immediately headed for the bathroom and ran a sink, making sure that it was warm water.

Finally, she took off her jacket and started rubbing at her arms. They felt hot compared to her fingers but Erin knew that should have felt cold to the touch based on how pale they were. She took some paper towel and put it under the faucet, Erin flinched at the burning sensation of the warm water flowing over her freezing cold skin. She took the warm and damp paper towel and put it on her ears, after a few minutes Erin started shivering again. She kept on doing this until she was sure that she wasn't going to lose any toes, fingers, or ears.

Erin put her jacket back on and headed to her classroom, "wow, you're really early today! Good morning," Erin watched as her homeroom teacher forced a smile on her face.

"Good morning." She simply dipped her head as she sat in her desk, jacket still on. After a few minutes she suddenly started shivering, an awful chill going through her body.

She was basically stuck in that state for the rest of the day, she was freezing. And a little bit confused, during both recesses she couldn't find her brother.

She was walking home, when she suddenly spotted another redhead. "Conner?" She called timidly as her steps slowed down, the boy turned.

Conner's green eyes flashed in recognition before he ran. "Erin!" The eight year old suddenly felt tears well up in her eyes, out of relief. He reached her and caught Erin in a strong hug, "where were you!? I skipped school to look for you but I couldn't find any signs and…" The boy rambled on and on about how worried he was, but eventually he trailed off.

"...Mom's gonna be really mad when I get home…" Erin muttered, she imagined the pain that she would feel in the near future. She wondered if her mother would beat her with a broom, or her bare fists. Probably the latter, and she wouldn't be allowed to eat for the next few days. Then hopefully she would be ignored as usual.

"I'll protect you." Conner's grip tightened at that statement, of course he would. Erin was sure that Conner was the only reason that she hadn't been kicked out or killed yet, the only way that she got things was from Conner pestering her mother.

"Ok," Erin pulled out of the tight embrace before holding his hand, the two headed in the direction of the house.

~0~

"Please!" Conner begged, "please keep us together!" An older man looked down at the two siblings from the opposite end of a desk.

This was what Erin was scared of, being separated from Conner. The man adjusted his glasses and frowned at a piece of paper, "I can't make any promises. Barely any foster families are willing to take in two older children, and adoption will basically be out of the picture." Erin watched as Conner balled his fists up out of frustration.

"...If we can't be together I'd rather be put back with our birth family." Erin said quietly while avoiding eye contact.

"Well that would definitely be impossible, both of your parents are going to be put in jail. Unless you feel like confessing to lying…" The old man narrowed his eyes, Erin immediately felt pure rage at the thought of this man believing that her and her brother lied.

"What would I get out of lying about this?" Erin snarled as she leaned forward slightly.

"That's enough," Conner warned as he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Tch, you need to learn some respect young lady. Anyways that's enough talking for today, I'll see what I can do." The two immediately stood and left the room.

"What an asshole," Erin hissed under her breath as they walked down the hallway.

"Don't say that, Erin. It's rude," Conner scolded.

"Well I'm not wrong, am I?" A "tch" sound was heard from Conner but he didn't look down at her.

"...Erin, if we're taken away from each other I'll try my best to stay in touch with you." Conner stated seriously, Erin's icy blue eyes turned up to her brother.

"You me WE'LL try OUR best to stay in touch with EACH OTHER." Conner blinked in surprise and looked back down at Erin, her eyes burned with passion.

He smiled, "right. No matter what happens, we'll always be there for each other."

~0~

"Erin, this is gonna be our foster mom," Erin narrowed her eyes at the lady in distrust.

"Call me Paula," the lady said as she reached out a hand to shake. Erin begrudgingly took it, but she noticed that the lady seemed a little bit unnerved by her gaze.

Erin was sure that the woman would get rid of them within a month, that was what had been happening with the past few foster parents. They acted perfectly nice and sweet to her and Conner before they realized that they made a mistake and took them back to the orphanage.

Erin ignored the short conversation between the adults before following Paula to her car, Conner close behind. For the entire car ride Erin was dead silent, while Conner and Paula talked.

Erin was basically silent for the first few months, one night she was passing by the kitchen when she recognized Paula's voice. She paused, "i-it's like I'm talking to a robot, I'm sure that she hates me!" Erin could tell that the woman was crying. "Conner's an angel, but Erin… She scares me mom, I just don't know what to do!" Erin narrowed her eyes, she had been waiting for this. She was actually impressed that Paula had made it as far as she did without ditching them.

"Yes, I know about her problems, I know that she has trust issues and a fear of intimacy but it's just that I've tried so hard to be kind to her…" Paula took a deep breath, "she's just so cold, she can be vicious too. I'm sure that she's being bullied at school but she won't say a word-" Erin turned and left, she had heard enough.

The next day after school Erin walked into the house, she placed her backpack on a hook and headed for the kitchen. She knew that Paula had the day off from work so that moment would be her chance.

Conner liked this home even if Erin could care less where she was. Her older brother was always willing to sacrifice for her happiness and safety and Erin felt that she should return the favour.

Paula jumped and stared at her as she stepped into the kitchen. "Erin! You're home early, don't you usually hang out at a park or something?" Erin silently sat down and looked at the woman intently. To Erin, what she was about to do was a big deal, even though for most families it was normal to tell them things about their day.

"Today in school a girl who has been bullying me since I first moved decided that it would be funny to shove me against a locker. I ended up putting her in a choke hold," Paula's face changed from confusion to shock. "I don't think that she's going to bother me again but she might decide to tell her parents and get me in trouble. I just thought that you should know." Erin sighed, she remembered her tormentor's shocked face as Erin finally decided to fight back. Erin had dared her to try shoving her again, just to see what would happen. Before any teachers had showed up she had let go, the girl had been really quiet for the rest of the day.

"Umm...well then…" Paula clearly didn't know how to handle the situation. "Has she been bullying you ever since you started at this new school?"

"That's what I said," Erin stated flatly as she crossed her arms.

"Well, thank you for telling me Erin." Erin simply nodded before standing and escaping to her room. She then closed the door behind her, subconsciously locking it. Erin let out a loud sigh as she flopped on the bed.

Erin had decided to make herself more open, so it would be longer before Paula brought them back to the orphanage. The longer that they could stay in that home, the happier Conner would be. Especially since he had started Tae Kwon Do and Paula was paying for it.

Erin liked to imagine that this was similar to a business deal, she would try to be more open and in return Paula would keep her and her older brother around.

Erin was easily willing to work on her character for Conner's well being.

~0~

A/N: Yay so another backstory chapter! What do you guys think? Also, next chapter will be the last for part one of this story, then I'll basically rewrite! Woo!

Hey so I came up with a fun fact for you guys!:

-Erin always subconsciously locks doors as she closes them. It's a habit from when she was a kid.


	48. Chapter 47

Chapter 47:

I silently work on my drawing, trying hard to remember. What I want is something that I can run and fight in, I don't care if it looks like an actual foot or not. I adjust the way that I'm sitting, I sigh out of frustration as I almost topple out of the bed.

I hate this. I hate this so much.

In a way it is my own fault though, that I'm in this situation. I could have quit the chunin exams as soon as my right leg was hurt, in fact, I could have just not done it in the first place. But I was just so impatient to prove myself and move higher in the ranks.

Luckily before my surgery Danzo showed up and assured that we would find a way to keep me a shinobi. In fact, he said that this could possibly make me stronger.

I jump when I sense somebody walk in, my first visitor after the surgery huh? I wonder who it is, "you know Erin, you should really be resting right now." I sigh and close my sketchbook.

"Kakashi-sensei," I greet calmly as I look up at him. He looks completely calm like me on the surface, but I can sense that he's nervous by his chakra. "Don't worry, the chances that I'm going to be possessed by a monster spirit and destroy the entire hospital are pretty low right now." Kakashi stiffens for a second, probably shocked that I guessed his exact thoughts.

"Erin...I'm sorry." I nod in acknowledgment, Kakashi didn't visit me before my surgery. It was probably because he thought that he could set me off.

"It's fine, both of us overestimated my abilities and control." I state flatly, "the important thing now is that I pick myself up and move on. Who am I supposed to fight for the last round?"

Kakashi gives me a shocked look, "you're supposed to fight one of the Kirigakure genin, his name is Haku. Erin, you can't possibly be planning on-"

"I am." I open my sketchbook and hold up my rough draft, Kakashi takes a couple of steps closer and eyes my drawing critically.

"I've never seen a design like this before...typically the prosthetics are made to look like a foot." He observes and I nod.

"That's because the prosthetics made so far aren't meant for shinobi even though they tend to lose limbs more often." When I think about it it really doesn't make sense.

"What if you got something from Sunagakure?" I frown for a second, the Hidden Sand Village is definitely an option. Their expertise is puppets so making prosthetic limbs would probably be child's play. "Hmm, but then it would cost a ridiculous amount of money, also Sunagakure and Konohagakure aren't on the best terms at the moment…" Kakashi thinks out loud, I sigh and nod. Well, Suna is planning on helping Orochimaru attack Konoha, but then I'm the only one who knows that.

I'll have to make sure that Gaara doesn't manage to transform into the Shukaku in the middle of Konoha. Wait, Gaara…

"Sensei, how's Lee?" Right now Lee should be in the hospital because of his loss against Gaara in the preliminaries.

"Lee? He lost but he should be fine, why do you ask?" He's fine…? Things didn't follow the original plot, he must have fought somebody else.

"I...was just worried since he can't do any ninjutsu or genjutsu. Who did he fight?" I lie smoothly, wow, no wonder most people don't trust me.

"The one named Gaara," I almost gape, what happened? In the anime Gaara almost kills Lee, something must have changed.

Ideas fly through my head, is Lee stronger now than he was in the anime? Is Gaara weaker? Did somebody intervene before anything too bad could happen? Is Gaara's mental state better…?

I notice Kakashi giving me a weird look and shrug. "I was just surprised, based on Gaara's chakra I didn't expect Lee to get out of that fight so easily." Lies lies lies.

Kakashi narrows his showing eye, "how so?" I stiffen, nerves well up from my chest.

"H-His chakra has a kind of foreboding feel to it, I can sense that he's emotionally unstable. Plus...I can sense a killing intent behind it, like something is ready to pounce at the smallest chance." Half truth, I spot Kakashi's eye softening. His chakra shows a strange emotion though, he's worried about something.

"Well, if you want to be battle ready for the last round of the chunin exams you have a month. You'll need to learn how to walk and fight with prosthetics, also...you should try to get your chakra under control." I stiffen at the thought of my chakra...at some point I want to try to make contact with the voice that I heard before I killed Misumi. "I have somebody who can help train you."

Shit shit shit shit shit, Danzo said that once I learn how to walk he'll send me on a training trip.

I have to think fast, what excuse can I use? My mind draws a blank, how the actual hell do I get out of this situation?

"I'm sorry Sensei, it's just that I already have somebody-"

"I know." This time I actually do gape, how? How did he find out!? "We were already suspicious so during the surgery Hokage-sama ordered for the doctors to check for the ROOT seal."

He sounds so...disappointed, distrusting, probably disgusted. He'll never believe a word that I say again, I bet that he doesn't even want me in his team anymore.

I feel myself being engulfed by panic, oh god what do I do!? I'd bet he's wondering exactly how many times I've lied to him, if he can trust anything that I say.

But he's also right to think that way.

The man lets out a sigh and brushes his hair back. "Erin, I'm warning you now that signing up for the training that the foundation has to offer is basically signing up for a living hell. Trust me, I know what it's like. You feel like you're completely alone in this world and that most people are out to get you. So you decided to make yourself so strong physically and mentally that you're practically untouchable. And when people actually do manage to reach you, you aren't afraid to push them away. Or even tear them down. I was like you when I was your age, I was scared of getting close to people because it felt like all of the people who trusted me would either get hurt or killed." I stare at him in shock, why the hell is he sharing this with me of all people? I'm selfish, I'm terrible at feeling empathy for others, why should he try to feel empathy for me? I don't deserve any of this attention, I think that even Sasuke would be able to do better with this speech than I am.

'He can use it against you.' I stiffen, the voice is back. 'If a person manages to get to somebody emotionally they can do whatever they want with them. It's almost like a puppet master.' The voice is dark, it has a bit of a rough tone, it's feminine.

"Sensei I…" I desperately try to continue the conversation despite my distraction. I don't even know the words I say after that because I'm focussing on the voice in my head, it's like my body goes on autopilot.

"Just...think about what I said." Before I know it Kakashi's leaving my hospital room.

'Finally he's gone. I've been wanting to have a little chat with you for awhile.' I listen to the voice, 'if you want to see me you have to get into a state in between sleep and consciousness at least. I'll wait for you.' With that my mind becomes dead silent and I stare at a wall blankly. Well now what?

I should try to reach that state. I lay down and close my eyes, and focus entirely on the quietness of my room. I imagine the quietness slowly spreading and drowning out my thoughts.

When I was younger I struggled with falling asleep, my mind was constantly working and racing and would never take a break. I eventually managed to teach myself how to clear my mind to the point where I could sleep through yelling, screaming, and banging on my door.

Of course now I'm more of a light sleeper but I don't have any trouble falling asleep.

My mind finally completely clears and I allow myself to fall into darkness.

~0~

I look around the dark area of my mindscape expectantly. This is interesting, so far I've only been able to reach this place from unnatural ways such as almost being choked to death and people entering my mind.

"I helped you get here," suddenly I can see everything around me. The previous pure blackness has been replaced by a dim green-yellow lighting, there isn't very much to see though, all that I can see is a cement floor in all directions until it eventually fades into shadow. I turn around, searching for the owner of the voice. "I'm over here."

I turn around again, and suddenly I'm face to face with a monster. I shriek in surprise and trip as I try to run backwards, I land on the ground and furiously try to crawl away.

There's nothing to separate us, she could kill me if she wanted to.

"Tch, calm down brat. I can't reach you, see?" It raises an enormous claw and taps on an invisible barrier, "if I could, you would be long dead." The thing bares its sharp teeth.

"W-What are you…?" I realize that my voice is shaking. The thing looks like it's basically made of shadow, it has glowing silver eyes with slitted pupils. It's eyes remind me of Orochimaru, those are basically all that I can see.

It suddenly steps into the dim lighting and cranes it's long neck. It's…a dragon, a pitch black dragon. "My name is Dáku, and I am what your necklace carries." She rumbles. Dáku huh? It's a fitting name, it literally means "dark".

She's pacing around me, or at least the barrier that separates us. It's menacing but it's giving me the chance to get a full view of her. Every single part of Dáku is black other than her eyes and teeth. She has two large horns coming out of just above her eyes and above her ears. She has enormous wings accompanied with a slim and nimble body. She has a ridiculously long tail, probably twice the length of her body. To add to that she has sharp looking spikes that line her spine, and large claws.

Without her wings she's about as tall as a four story building.

"Have you been in my necklace...for this whole time?" I ask and the beast stops to glare down at me.

"I AM the necklace, brat. And it doesn't belong to you, I simply just chose you to hold onto it." I can't help but shiver at her words, for an entire year I've just been carrying her around on my neck. A huge dragon that could probably destroy all of Konoha if you caught it in a bad mood.

"Why didn't you say anything before now? And why did you "choose" me?"

Dáku sighs and sits down, I feel the ground shake underneath me as she does so. "I was exhausted after traveling to your world and back, so I was sleeping. I chose you because you should be easy to manipulate." I feel myself bristle at those words but she simply smirks. "Plus you're interesting, you have quite a lot of hate inside of you. Almost as much as Kurama." I frown, who's Kurama? I feel like I should know them.

"The Kyuubi. That's who I'm talking about." Dáku elaborates, at this point I'm almost completely sure that she can read my mind.

"What do you mean by almost as much hatred as-uh-Kurama?" I try out the name, I guess that it makes sense that the nine tails should have a name. It's just that in the anime they never really mention it.

"Kurama hates humans with all of his mind and soul, you're the same way except it's with your parents." I stiffen at that, I am not in the mood to talk or think about my parents. "Even the mention of them got you riled up," Dáku chuckles, I don't like her. I don't like the fact that she knows more about me than I know about her...she probably knows a little more about me than myself.

"Anyways Erin, I have some business that I wish to speak to you about." Dáku narrows her eyes and she lays down so she's at my level. "In the end, my goal is to free myself from this seal."

"How so?" I ask with a frown.

"In order to free myself I have to take over your body." I stare at her in shock, that is incredibly upfront. "I bet that you're wondering why I'd ever tell you this and here's my answer; I enjoy the challenge."

She bares her teeth and I feel fear grip me, how the hell am I supposed to protect myself from her? Based on my experience so far, her ability to take over is entirely reliant on my mental state. Especially anger.

"Anyways, in the meantime as I slowly but surely take over, there are times that I might be willing to help you with things."

"Like what? And why would you ever help me?" I feel like I'm somehow making deals with the devil herself. I can sense a completely bloodthirsty aura coming off of her. Is this what my chakra feels like to other sensory types?

"I can give you information, ideas in training. I'm even willing to give you some power, just so long as what you're doing is something that I agree with. If I don't agree with it but I help you out...it will cost you a favour." She pauses and smirks, "as for the reason...it's awfully boring in here."

I nod as my mind races with ideas. "Well, that's all that I have to say to you for now. With practice we'll probably be able to have full conversations while you're completely conscious." Dáku rises back up, I close my eyes to leave but I freeze as I remember something.

"From now on don't take over my body just to finish off people!" I snarl up at the dark dragon.

"Hn, you think that you can tell me what to do? And besides, killing him allowed you to advance didn't it? I was trying to help you," she grunts as she turns around.

"No, you were trying to traumatize me so you could get a further grip on my mind!" I call back but she's already disappeared into the darkness.

~0~

"Go Erin! You can do it!"

"Go Erin-sensei!"

I adjust the grip on my crutches and push forward, Lee, Sakura, and Midori cheer on the sidelines.

'Go Erin-sensei!' Dáku cheers in a mocking tone before bursting into laughter.

"Shut up," I hiss under my breath, luckily the other humans don't hear it.

I finally got my first pair of prosthetics and I'm healed enough to start walking. All within a week, the shinobi world is pretty impressive.

My prosthetics look incredibly similar to what blade runners use, and for some reason they make me look incredibly menacing. I'm also pretty sure that they're spring loaded. Dáku said that she likes them but what's her opinion worth?

'I heard that,' I let out a sigh and push on, I hate that now I'm never alone. It feels like I have to be careful even with what I think, 'don't worry, I'm pretty sure that I know every single aspect of your personality.'

I sigh again, "I want to try walking without the crutches." I hear cheering from my peers but the only thing that I can think about is how much I want to get rid of Dáku. I didn't sign up to have a thing that calls herself an incarnation of evil in the back of my mind. No, I did not sign up for this shit.

'Wow, watch your language.'

"I said shut up!" I whisper as I carefully put my crutches down.

'Make me,' Dáku scoffs and I can imagine her smirk. Why can't she be like Kurama? I'm pretty sure that he's usually silent in Naruto's mind unless spoken to or something like that.

I sigh and decide to ignore whatever she says. I stand up straight and take a step, I'm actually surprised at how easy it is to walk in these prosthetics.

I remember once when I was little a circus camp showed up at our school and taught us how to use the things for their performances. They tried to get everyone to try everything so I officially know how to juggle, the basics of riding a tricycle, and how to walk across a metal tightrope. But what I'm using with these prosthetics now is stilts, stilts were basically the easiest things to use as long as you weren't scared of heights and you had decent balance. So basically all that I have to do now is imagine that I'm wearing more advanced stilts.

Before I've realized it I've walked all of the way across the hospital room, "yay, Erin-sensei!" Midori cheers and all of a sudden I'm falling. She freaking decided to tackle me at full speed to give me a hug.

"Midori no!" Sakura shrieks but I manage to grab the window sill, but the bad thing is that the momentum keeps me falling forward, and my face smashes into the wall.

Midori immediately lets go and I pull myself back up. "I think I'm fine," I state as I regain my balance, but suddenly feel a hot liquid running out of my nose. I lift a hand up and lightly touch my face before looking at it. "Oh," scarlet blood drips off of my fingers.

Everyone starts panicking while Dáku cackles at the back of my mind, I find the situation kind of funny too.

But suddenly it feels like a switch is flipped in my mind.

I lift my other hand and take a seat on my hospital bed.

One hand perfectly clean, while the other soaked in blood. Disgusting, hot, blood.

Images of a horrified man's face fill my mind, his shocked eyes looked like they were piercing right into my soul as I plunged my hand right through his heart.

A wave of nausea rushes through me and I barely manage to bite back a strangled sob. I cover my mouth with my clean hand but I feel more blood pouring all over it.

More blood. There's blood everywhere.

The man didn't need to die, no blood needed to be spilled. I feel tears well up and escape from my eyes.

I'm filthy, both physically and as a human being. There's blood all over my hands.

I'm garbage, I'm not worthy of any attention, nobody should be near me, I'm a murderer.

"Erin-?" I jump at a hand landing on my shoulder, it's Lee.

"G-Get away!" I barely manage to gasp, stay away from me, or else I'll end up ruining your humanity! I push him away with all of my strength, and I run.

I stumble as I dodge Sakura and Midori, I stop in front of the door. Everything's closing in I need to get out, I feel like I can't breath in this place.

Sakura says something as she pushes Midori behind her, she reaches out a hand. I immediately recoil and dash out of the room.

Tears flow out of my eyes and blood floods out of my nose as I run, I'm desperate to get out. I trip and I fall but I immediately get up although I leave a smear of blood on the white floor tiles.

People stare in bewilderment as I dash past, constantly tripping and almost falling. Suddenly I skid to a stop, there are people in my way.

A few shinobi, some nurses and doctors as well. "Erin," one of them takes a step forward, that's...Minami! "Calm down, we get it. You're stressed, none of us can even imagine what you're going through right now-"

"Shut up!" I sob...I feel something burning spreading throughout my body.

"Erin...you recognize me don't you? It's me, Minami-I'm your friend!"

"Friend? You only stay around me because you pity me! And you're supposed to pretend to be friendly with me so the Hokage can keep an eye on me from a distance!" The burning is spreading into my head.

Minami freezes, with a look of pure shock on her face. "H-How did you know that!?" I almost laugh, isn't that obvious?

"Why else would you stick around for so long!? If you were just my "friend" you would have probably ditched me within two weeks!" I've been rejected by hundreds of people, by my own parents in fact. Nobody can stand a person like me...especially now that I'm a murderer.

Suddenly...I recognize tears in Minami's eyes. "Have you...really thought that for a whole year? But what about all of your other friends!?"

"Naruto feels that since I'm one of the first people to defend him he has no choice but to stick around me! Sakura still secretly hates me, she just has to act more professional since we're on the same team! Lee feels bad for me so he stays around! You see!? Even Iruka-sensei doesn't trust me, he doesn't think that I should be a shinobi!"

Ugly truths are pouring out and it feels like I can't stop, things that have been at the back of my mind for months are finally coming to the surface.

"Goddamnit Minami! Haven't you already guessed it!? The only reason why I reached out to you was wasn't because I was hoping for a companion, it was because I wanted you to teach me Japanese! Have you ever noticed how I barely ever approach you? You're allowed to leave! You don't have to be trapped by me! How many people hate you just because you're "friends" with an outsider, huh!? Almost everyone in this village hates me! It would be so much easier just to lose me than feel isolated!"

I'm speaking so quickly that I can barely register what I'm saying. Suddenly I feel the mix of blood and tears on my face dissipate into steam as black whisps dance across my skin. Now Minami is definitely crying, I don't know why though. She finally has the chance to get rid of me.

"So you've been keeping yourself distant just because you think that everyone's going to leave you?" Everyone other than Minami is slowly moving away.

I scoff, "there's only one person who I know would never leave me, the only one who I care about. And I'll…" I trail off and I feel more tears escaping from my eyes, but they immediately turn into steam. "I'll never see him again!" I feel my hair raising off of my shoulders and I suddenly realize that my entire body has been engulfed by the black whisps.

And my mind suddenly goes black.

~0~

*Dáku's POV*

I hiss in delight as Erin finally breaks down, I have been waiting for this chance for an entire year. I push my chakra to seep through the weakening seal, the girl doesn't even notice as I slowly take over her mind.

"Finally...I can be free!" I snarl, and suddenly I'm seeing everything from Erin's eyes. Erin's body immediately drops onto all fours at my command, I'm poor at controlling bodies while they're on their hind legs.

I lick my lips and scan the room, doctors, nurses, and shinobi. This should be easy.

I force Erin's body to take a deep breath, I use my chakra to compress the air in her lungs. I form several hand seals and immediately hear people screaming and panicking. "Wind Style;...Sonic Scream!" Glass shatters, concrete breaks, people are sent flying. Doctors, nurses, shinobi, patients, children, my jutsu doesn't discriminate.

I stalk my way out of the hospital, "Erin stop! Please get control over yourself!" A voice wails and I glance over my shoulder. Sakura, like every other pathetic human she's crying and bagging instead of taking action.

I allow killing intent to flood out of Erin's body, the girl freezes as I utter the words. "I'm not Erin."

Black scales begin to blossom from the necklace that holds me, I let out a content sigh and look up. Finally. Finally after thousands of years I will be free, I will be able to breath in fresh air. To fly through the skies would be amazing.

But first I need to escape from this village.

I would love to fly out but it should take at least twenty minutes for my wings and tail to solidify. It should also take about a day for me to complete the transformation.

I spot several shinobi running in my direction before repeating my last jutsu, this sends Sakura flying back as well.

I begin bounding through Konoha, swerving to avoid the humans that are in my way. Finally I'm running up one of the enormous walls that separates Konohagakure from the rest of the world.

I might make it this time, all that I have to do is disappear into a cave somewhere to complete my transformation. Then I'll be free, nobody will be strong enough to seal me away again.

The black scales finally cover all of Erin's body and a skeleton is beginning to form just above the skin.

I reach the top and peer around. The village is clearly in a state of panic, there are shinobi everywhere. Luckily for them I don't plan on going on a rampage, I'm not like Kurama who will simply destroy humans because he hates them.

But I will be back, to free all of the tailed beasts.

"This is where you stop!" I turn and send several ANBU a glare, but I freeze. One of them has Senju Hashirama's chakra.

That one will be a problem, I zero in on my target. He's wearing a bear mask and he's standing in the centre of the group of five.

I look up at the sky, it's a hot day so this jutsu should work. "Fire Style; Majestic Destroyer Flame!" I take a deep breath, and blast them with flames. This is a jutsu that I learned from one of my many past partners, I have hundreds of jutsu in my arsenal just from experience. For example I can use all of the jutsu that Erin knows because she learned how to use it with my chakra. So I've memorized every single jutsu that people have performed using my chakra.

Once I'm sure that my enemies are sufficiently engulfed in flames, I continue in my escape from Konohagakure. I run down the wall and finally reach the forest. As soon as I enter the trees I notice branches starting to droop and the leaves turning grey.

My chakra kills most things but at the moment this is a very great disadvantage. I'm going to leave a trail.

"Wood Style; Four Pillar Prison Jutsu!" Wow, try saying that ten times as fast.

My train of thought is interrupted as I'm suddenly surrounded planks of wood, and I realize that I've been trapped inside of a wooden cage.

"Wind Style: Sonic Scream!" The strips of wood rattle and crack in their places but they don't move. I snarl and stalk to one of the cracks in between the planks. "So now are you going to do wood style user? I will find a way out unless you have some way of sealing me back into the necklace." Only dead silence follows my words, I sigh and twist so I can see out of the crack. I spot a leaf drifting by, an idea comes into my mind.

"Sealing art-"

"Too slow," I switch with the leaf. The ANBU whips around in surprise as I glare down at him from my perch. "Your skill is impressive, but I have thousands of years of experience. If you don't get in my way again I'll spare your life."

"I won't let you go any farther than this point!"

I narrow my eyes, "very well then. Prepare to die." I'll give him a fair chance, I won't use my chakra to tear apart his body and ultimately kill him.

Bones have completely formed around my body, my tail and wings are almost ready to be formed.

I launch off of the tree, ready for a full battle in taijutsu.

But, something blocks my line of attack.

"Nobody's going to die today! Do you want to know why!?" I launch backwards as the clearing is filled with smoke, Erin's lungs start to cough. "Because the legendary Sannin Jiraiya-sama has arrived!" The smoke clears and in front of me stands a toad about the size of an average car from Erin's world, on top of that toad stands an old man with a wild mane of white hair.

This man is stronger than the wood style user, I should be careful. For a moment I consider simply running but I know for a fact that this man will not let me just get away.

I'll fight then.

The second that I hit the summoning toad it disappears in a cloud of smoke, I draw in air for a jutsu to send at the Sannin.

"Oh no you don't!" My eyes widen as he runs at me with a very obvious seal in his hand.

I easily dodge, "that jutsu has been used against me before! It will never work again." I snarl at the memory of Senju Hashirama accompanied with his Uzumaki partner.

"Well...hey do you have any ideas on how to beat this thing!? I've never seen or heard of it before!" The man turns his attention to the wood style user.

"We're in the exact same predicament," the ANBU sighs.

"Don't you dare turn your back on me!" I launch at them, this time I will use my yang chakra to kill them, I won't show any mercy.

"Seal activate!" I immediately feel a fiery pain begin to spread throughout Erin's entire body, coming from...her tongue.

Somebody activated the foundation's seal. I land on the ground and suddenly collapse. I can't move…

I look up to see that a third person has joined the group standing in my way.

I try to stand but the seal feels like chakra wrapping around Erin's body and restraining me. I hiss angrily from my position on the ground.

The man who activated the seal kneels down to my level and takes off his mask...I recognize him as Erin's favourite sensei from the foundation. "You can't move so you may as well give up and retreat into Erin's necklace."

"It's not...Erin's damn necklace-it's mine!" I barely manage to choke out, Boar sighs and stands back up.

"I've handled the situation and we will be taking Erin into our custody, you two may take your leave now." His words aren't directed towards me anymore but at the Sannin and the wood style user.

"Wait-what do you mean "we"!?"

"He means the foundation." There's a solemn sound to the ANBU member as he elaborates for the Sannin, the older man's expression moves from confusion to anger.

"I thought that you guys were taken down after the Uchiha massacre! What the hell happened while I was gone!?" Boar doesn't say a word, I silently listen. This may be useful information for the future.

"Danzo convinced lord third that the foundation was important and useful for protecting the village."

The Sannin lets out a disgusted sigh and crosses his arms, "I'm going to argue with lord third and see what he can do. Oi! Shouldn't Erin's sensei get a say on where she trains for the final round of the chunin exams!?" He yells at Boar who takes in all of the smack talk with a peaceful smile.

"I am also Erin's sensei, and when I think about it...I've actually taught her more than Kakashi has." The Sannin bristles angrily, but I can't help but agree with Boar. He has indeed taught Erin a lot, along with the other mentors from the foundation. Kakashi can't even compete.

Oops, did I say that out loud?

"Watch your mouth when you're at the mercy of us."

"What are you going to do? Kill me? Doing that would also kill my jinchuuriki." The old man grits his teeth before marching off, I think that I have no choice but to take my leave as well. "You," I address Boar and he turns around.

"I will make you regret this. Someday I'm going to tear you apart limb from limb."

As the ANBU member disappears Boar puts his mask back on. "I wish you luck," he answers in a cheerful tone and I snarl.

I retreat back into my cage, swallowing my rage and accepting my temporary defeat.

~0~

*Erin's POV*

I crack my eyes open and slam them shut again at the blinding light. How many times have I been in this situation before?

I force my eyes to adjust to the light and look around. There aren't any windows in this room, the walls are padded and as I sit up I notice a seal spreading across the entire room's floor.

"You can't be serious," I mutter under my breath. "Dáku, what the hell did you do?" There is no answer.

"Dáku?" I ask worriedly, it isn't in her character to be quiet like this. Usually I think that she'd be bragging about the horrible situation she got me into.

It's funny, I've only known her for less than a week and I feel like I know her so well.

I'm not bound to the bed so that's nice. But they took away my prosthetic legs, that's going to be a weakness that I'll have to watch out for.

I jump when I hear the sound of a door opening and notice three people walking in from across the room. It's Danzo flanked by two ROOT members.

"I see that you're awake," I silently nod. When a member of the foundation is spoken to directly by Danzo it's a big deal, so they're supposed to wait for their right to speak.

So even though hundreds of questions are running through my mind, I silently listen to what he has to say.

"Do you feel that you are ready to begin your training? And I mean by both physically and mentally," I pause, physically I know that I'm ready. But it feels like I just remembered what happened, and I feel terrible about it. I'll have to apologize to Minami...if she hasn't taken my advice, but I think that she either has or should. Especially after that outburst, now she knows that she can leave so she may as well.

I'll deal with it, this training might actually help my mental state, maybe I won't be as pathetic. "Yes, Danzo-sama."

I spot a faint smile on Danzo's face, "very well. Later today you will set out to the Land of Iron where you will learn how to fight with your new prosthetics. It will be difficult, but I believe that a prodigy such as yourself can do it."

The Land of Iron...it should be cold there and it's at least a three days journey. It will be difficult for me to walk, especially with the snow. But I'll do it, and when I get back I'll kick Haku's ass in the chunin exams.

And I'll figure out how to keep Dáku's power in check.

And to all of the people who think that I can't, you're damn wrong.

'TILL NEXT TIME

~0~

A/N: oh my gosh...I never expected to get this far in my story. Thank you guys so much for reading this far and continuing to support me!

This story has been a big part of my life and I've loved writing it so much! I've loved creating Erin's character, I've loved developing this story, I love my readers too!

Now I'm just gonna talk a little bit more about this story and me…

I am not abused, I am actually very lucky and privileged to have the family that I have. Erin's abuse is based on some people's around me experiences, I also made her childhood the way that it is to show that no matter what, somebody can get back up no matter how many times they're knocked down. Although she may have some emotional scars left from her past.

I'll tell you what Erin's story was supposed to be like in the beginning:

Erin wasn't originally supposed to be from our world, in fact, I invented an entire hidden village. The hidden dragon village. This village was supposed to be directly connected to (you guessed it) dragons, as in guarded by them, living alongside them, etc. And a chosen few would get a dragon egg and travel around the world. Erin would have been one of these chosen few, and what somebody does who gets a dragon egg is travel to each of the five great nations and reach at least chunin rank in them. For this to work the hidden dragon village wouldn't be able to participate in any of the fights between the five great nations, well...if somebody was at that moment training at one of the villages they were allowed. But yeah anyways Erin would've shown up and of course been placed on team seven and would've been ridiculously OP and a Mary Sue so...yeah.

Anyways you guys, as I said before I'm going to go back and redo most of this story so you're going to have to wait a little bit before part two. Unless you want to see the better version of this, I hope that you do!

See ya!


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